TAPPING  REEVE. 


OJnitntg,  (Ennnecttcut 

irn9-i9nn 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES  OF  MEMBERS 

HISTORY  AND  CATALOGUE  OF  THE 
LITCHFIELD   LAW   SCHOOL 

HISTORICAL  NOTES 


BY 
DVVIGHT  C.  KILBOURN 

Clerk  of  Superior  Court,   Member  of  the  Connecticut  Historical 
Society,  Member  of  the  Kansas  Historical  Society,   Vice- 
President  of  the  Litchfield   Historical  Society. 


rUBUSHED 

BY    THE   AUTHOR 

LITCHFIELD,   CONN. 

1909 


5^ 


J    \j     I    J^r- 


COPYRIGHT 

BY    DWIGHT    C.    KILBOURN 

1909 


Edition  Limited  to  500 


THE    MATTATUCK    PRESS 

WATERBURY.     CONNECTICUT 


(To  tuxr  iivcthxHnt 

of  tit c 

fitchficlrt  (Coitttty  gar 

tUict  XiooU  to  nic»ot 

^tTcctic>natcIvj 

Iiciticatcit 


CONTENTS 

¥    ¥ 

List  of  Illustkatiuxs xi. 

Statk:\ikxt  in-  tiik  Cask  xiii 

Judge  Cjiikcil's  Ckxtexxial  Address   i. 

First  settlement  of  the  towns.  County  organization.  County  Officers. 
Character  of  the  people.  Iron  Works.  Religious  matters.  Colonial 
and  Revolutionary  Wars.  Newspapers.  ^^lerchants.  Slitting  Mills. 
Xail  rods.  Scythes.  Iron  Mines.  Paper  Mills.  Woolen  Mills.  Emi- 
gration to  Vermont  and  the  Western  Reserve.  Education.  Morri.s' 
Academy.  -Mis.s  Pierce's  School.  The  Law  School.  Fu'st  Law  Re- 
ports. Lawyers.  Doctors.  Authors.  Foreign  Missionary  Society. 
Mission  School  at  Cornwall.  Temperance  Movement.  Infidelity.  The 
future. 

BoAki).M.\x"s  Early  Lights   39 

Partridge    Thatcher.     Daniel  Everett.     Tapping    Reeve.     John    Allen. 

Barzillai    Slosson.        Samuel  W.    Southmayd.        John    Cotton    Smith. 

Nathaniel    Smith.       Noah    P..  Benedict.       James   Gould.        .A.sa   Bacon. 

Elisha  Sterling.  Jahez  W.  Huntington.  Phineas  Miner.  Leman 
Church. 

Sedgwick's  Fifty  Years  ai'  riii-:  V>.\\< 68 

Correspondence.  Organization  of  the  Courts.  Chief  Justice  Hosmcr. 
Judge  Peters.  Judge  Chapman.  Judge  Brai'nard.  Judge  Bristol. 
Judge  Daggett.  The  Superior  Court.  The  County  Court.  Judge  Petti- 
hone.  Judge  Strong.  Judge  Welch.  Judges  Burrall.  ^\dodruff  and 
Boardman.  Clerk  Frederick  Wolcott.  Sheriff  Seymour.  Messenger 
John  Stone.  Business  of  the  County  Court.  .Admission  to  the  Bar. 
Practice.  Authorities  in  1808.  Judge  Gould.  Noah  B.  Benedict.  A.sa 
Bacon.  General  Sterling.  Judge  Boardman. Phineas  Mmer.  William 
G  Williams.  John  Strong.  Tr.  William  M.  Burrall.  Col.  William 
Cogswell.  Seth  P.  Beers.  Perr\  Smith.  Roger  Mills.  Michael  F. 
Mills.  Charles  B.  Phelps.  Matthew  Minor.  Holbrook  Curtis.  Isaac 
Leavenworth.  Royal  R.  Hmman.  Joseph  H.  Bellamy.  Theodore 
North.  Leman  Church.  William  S.  Holaliird.  George  S.  Boardman. 
Reflections. 

Jl'dgk  \\'arxi:r's  Re.mixisci:xges   100 

Experiences  in  the  General  .\ssemhly.  History  of  the  Act  allowing 
prisoners  to  testify.  Story  about  Dwight  Morris.  Adoniiah  Strong. 
Col.  Joshua  Porter.  John  G.  Mitchell.  Phdander  Wheeler.  Aunt 
Polly.  John  H.  Hubbard.  Roger  Averill.  Norton  J.  Buell.  John 
Elmore.  Leman  Church.  ^liles  Toln  Granger.  Col.  Jacob  B.  Har- 
denburg.  George  W.  Peet.  Michael  F.  ^lills.  William  K.  Peck.  Jr. 
William  S.  Holabird.  Gideon  Hall.  Roland  Hitchcock.  Roger  H. 
Milks.  Jared  B.  Foster.  Nelson  Brewster.  George  Wheaton.  Julius 
B.  Harrfson.     Solon  B.  Johnson.     Frederick  Chittenden.     John  G.  Reed. 


X.  COXTKXTS 

lllSToUJeAl.    XoTKS    118 

The  first  Court  Record.  Early  Attorneys.  Present  Attorneys.  Gov- 
ernors. Judges.  State  Attorneys.  Clerks.  Sheriffs.  Court  Houses. 
Jury  matters.  Witnesses.  Stenographers.  Students.  Libraries. 
\\  hite  Fund.  County  Centennial.  Judge  Daggett's  Letter.  Ancient 
Court   K.\i)enses.     County  Court. 

Noted  Tki ai.s  144 

The  Sellick-Osborne  case.  Blaspliemy.  Wrong  Verdict  Stands.  A 
Funeral  Order.  Rabello.  Robert  Drakcly.  Bernice  White.  William 
H.  Green.  James  LeRoy.  Burglars  on  a  hand  car.  Liquor  Prosecu- 
tions. Masters  vs.  Warren  Robbins  vs.  Cofiin.  Higgins"  (Hadley) 
escape.  Michael  Bion.  Borgesson.  Tax  case.  Mannering.  Norman 
Brocks'  Will  case.     John  T.  Hayes.     Haddock  vs.  Haddock. 

CoL'NT\-  C(»K()Xi:u.  Hi:. \i, 'I'll  OfficivK,  At'i'okxi'V  Gex'Krai 165 

First  L.\\\  Reports 168 

The   preface.     Fac-similie.     Ephraim    Kirby.     His   law   bocks. 

The  CofXTv  J  Air 176 

The  Litcii I'Ii;i.i)  L.wv  Scitooi 178 

Chas.  C.  Moore's  article  from  the  Law  Notes.  Charles  G.  Loring's  ad- 
dress. A  Students  letter.  Augustus  Hand's  letter.  The  Buildings. 
The    Catalogue. 

BlOGK.\l'llK-\l,    XoTl'.S    Al.l'IIAl',ETlC.\LEY    AkRAXC.i;1)    215 

LioAX^s    307 

Ex-Governor  and  Ex-Chief  Justice  Andrews  address.  A  demurrer  de 
Kickapoo  Indians.  Sound  Advice  of  .\ll)ert  Wadhams.  The  Annual 
Banquets.  President  Huntington's  address.  Rev.  A.  N.  Lewis'  letter. 
Hurlbutisms.  Felicities.  Poetry.  Jokes.  Judge's  Evidence.  Old 
Grimes.  Complimentary  dinner  to  Judge  O.  S.  Seymour  at  Bridgeport. 
Watertown  trial.  New  Milford  Power  Company.  Sermon  at  the  Ex- 
ecution of  John  Jacohs,  1768.  Truman  Smith.  Jury  Commissioners. 
County  Commissioners.     Court  Messengers.     The  Judgment  File. 

IxDi'.x  di'  .\.\.\ii;s  


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


«l    4 


Old  Litchfield  n 
Tearing  down  King  George  Statue  17 

Old  Writ  4^ 

Count}-    Centennial    1851  ,U 

Superior  Court  in  Session  122 

Court  Houses  128 

Judge  Preston's  Tombstone  143 

First  Law  Report,   fac-simile  168 

County  Jail  1/6 

Law  School  Buildings  180 

Reeve's  Building  192 

Gould's   Buildmg  iy4 

May-  it  please  the  Court  308 

Kickapoo  Lidians  3^4 

Banquet  316 

Old  Grimes  320 

Judges  I'.vi deuce,  fac-similic  328 

Title  i^age  of  Old   Sermon  340 


PORTRAITS 

Allen,  Henry  J. 
Andrews.  Charles   B. 
Bacon,  Asa    (Group) 

Francis 

Epaphroditus  C. 
Baldwin,  Birdseye 

George  H. 
Barnes,  Andrew  G. 
Beers,  Seth  P. 
Beeman.  Frederick  D. 
Ballamy.  Joseph  H. 
Benedict,  Xoah  B. 
Botsford.  Henry  A. 
Brinsmade.  Daniel  N. 
Buel.   Chauncey  J. 
Cantield.  Judson 

Col.   Samuel 
Case,  Hubert  B. 
Catlin,  Abijah 

George 


164 

310,  220 

63 

63 

63 

115 

22  ^ 

34-' 

93 

138 

7^ 

38 

229 

231 
336 
232 

i8 

344 
236 

234 


Church.  Samuel 
Coe.   William  G. 
Cogswell,  Leonard  W  . 
Cothren.  William 
Dowd,  Wheaton  F. 
Ellsworth,  William  W. 
Etheridge,  Frank  W. 
Fenn.  Augustus  A. 
Foster.  Jared  B. 
Gould,  James 
Granger.   ^liles  T. 
Graves.  Henry  B. 
Guernsey,  Howard  M. 
Hall,  Gideon 
Harrison,  George  C. 
Herman,  Samuel  A. 
Hickox,  George  A. 
Higgins,  Richard  T. 
Hitchcock.  Roland 
Holcnml),  ^Lircu>  H. 
Hollister.  Gideon  H. 
Home.  Samuel   B. 
Hubb-ard.  John  H. 
Huntington.   Jame> 
Hurlbut.  Wdliam  F. 
Karl.  John  J. 
Kilbourn.   Dwighl    C. 
Kirby,  Ephraim 
McMahon,  James  H. 
Middlebrooks.   Chesterfield 
Mills.  Michael  F. 
Mosher,  Lewis  W. 
Nellis.  Edward  A. 
Nickerson.  Leonard  J. 
Nettleton.   Charles 
Pierpont.   John 
Pettibone.   Augustus 
Phelps.  Charles  B. 
Porter.  Charles  J. 
Piatt.  Orville  H. 


C. 


I 
78 
132 
150 
144 
242 
166 

154 
116 
184 
156 
152 
344 
113 
342 
250 
250 
165 
114 
167 
253 
254 
106 
256 
142 

344 
119 

170 
136 
266 
78 
33C^ 
162 

163 
269 

2.  345 
78 

94 
160 
276 


XI 


II.I.ISTRATIOXS 


Ransom.  William  L. 

1^4 

Reeve.  Tapping — Frontispiece 

Roraback,  Alberto  T. 

133 

Ryan.  Thomas  F. 

^77 

San  ford.    David   C. 

278 

Henry   S. 

280 

Sedgwick.   Charles   F. 

71 

Albert 

281 

Seymour.  Edward  W. 

130 

Origen  S. 

210 

Ozias 

2S7 

Origen  S..  2nd 

287 

Alorris   W. 

287 

Closes.  Jr. 

-''1=; 

Sherman,   Roger 

1 7-' 

Smith,   Jdlm    Cotton                     28, 

290 

Truman 

96 

Wellington  B. 

158 

Willey  T. 

33C^ 

Turkington,  Frank  H. 

299 

Tuttle,  Byron 

34-' 

Warner,  Arthur  D. 

167 

Donald  J. 

100 

Donald  T. 

126 

Welch,  Gideon  H. 

141 

Wessells.  Col.  L.  W. 

30  r 

Wheaton,   George 

115 

Williams,  Frederic  ]M. 

300 

Huliert 

298 

Wolcott,  Frederick 

81 

Gen.  Oliver 

173 

Gov.  Oliver 

302 

Woodruff,  George  C. 

195 

George  M. 

200 

Lewis  B. 

206 

Morris,    (Group) 

306 

James  P. 

306 

County  Coroners 

344 

Messengers 

344 

Jury  Commissioners 

343 

STATEMENT  OF  THE  CASE 


The  practice  of  the  law  in  the  Enghsh  speaicing-  colonies  of  the 
new  world  previous  to  the  organization  of  Litchfield  Count\"  is  an 
interesting  study  of  various  methods  of  procedure  all  founded  upon 
the  practice  of  the  mother  country.  Some  were  copied  from  the 
common  law  courts,  and  some  from  the  other  courts  and  in  hardlv 
any  two  colonies  was  there  similarity  of  practice,  while  the  old  com- 
mon law  of  England  was  a  general  guide  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
statute  law,  with  such  modifications  in  the  Puritan  colonies  as  the 
mosaic  law  suggested  to  the  religious  teachers  and  pastors  thereof. 

About  the  time  our  county  was  organized,  these  difl:"erent  modes 
of  practice  began  to  be  cr_\stallized  into  a  more  established  form. 
There  were  practically  no  attorneys,  as  We  now  understand  the 
term,  "men  learned  in  the  law."  In  many  sections  there  was  some 
infiueiitial  man  who  was  generally  known  as  "the  Squire,"  and 
whose  opinions  ruled  the  circle  of  his  acquaintance.  In  this  county 
there  were  only  five  or  six  men  who  pretended  to  be  lawxers. 

Directly  after  the  formation  of  the  county  and  the  establishment 
of  the  county  court,  these  men  were  admitted  to  practice  as  at- 
tornews  with  slight  examinations,  and  with  little  knowledge  oif  the 
law;,  Ijut  they  were  strong-minded  and  of  sterling  character,  oracles 
in  their  own  communities,  and  the\-  verv  soon  brought  the  decisions 
of  the  county  court  of  this  county  to  the  front  rank  of  judicature. 
It  was  in  this  op])ortune  i)eriod  that  Tapping  Reeve  located  at 
Litchfield  and  unintentionally  began  that  process  which  e\-entually 
overthrew  the  common  law^  of  Lngland,  for  a  common  law  of  our 
own,  and  changed  the  old  forms,  rules  and  precedents  which  had  so 
long  prevailed.  The  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  utterly  de- 
stroyed the  doctrine  that  "the  king  coukl  do  no  wrong"  and  swej^t 
away  his  prerogatives  and  common  laws  :  and  while  we  now  quote 
the  good  contained  in  the  "wisdom  of  ages,"  we  decide  questions 
by  Reeves,  Swift  and  Gould,  and  modern  "wise  instances." 

Ten  }ears  ago  the  compiler  of  this  l)ook  conceived  the  idea  of 
Collecting  and  [)rescr\ing  in  a  permanent  form  a  mass  of  material 
which  was  then  available  relating  to  the  legal  history  and  tradition 
of  his  native  county,  and  in  the  midst  of  his  active  duties  as  the 
Clerk  of  its  courts,  has  gathered  these  items  and  now*  presents  them 
for  N'our  consideration,  believing  his  work  to  be  a  somewhat  valuable 
contrilnitiim  t(^  our  earlier  historv. 


XIV  STATEMENT   OE   THE    CASE 

The  reprint  of  Chief  justice  Samuel  Church's  Address  at  the 
Centennial  Celebration  of  the  orij;anization  of  the  county,  in  1851, 
gives  a  very  concise  and  thoroui^h  analxsis  of  the  elements  which 
have  conduced  to  give  oiu'  count}-  ,^-reat  inliuence  in  the  religious, 
social,  political  and  legal  affairs  in  both  the  state  and  nation.  The 
address,  however,  was  made  too  early  to  include  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  and  Harriet  IJeecher  Stowe  among  the  writers  and  speak- 
ers who  have  done  so  much  to  uplift  the  world's  ideas,  and  wonder- 
fullv  advance  its  progress  towards  its  present  power  and  greatness. 

The  reprint  of  Hon.  David  S.  Boardman's  "Early  Lights  of  the 
Litchfield  County  Bar,"  being  the  reminiscences  of  a  man  nniety 
years  of  age,  of  his  colleagues  and  associates  in  the  earlier  \ears 
of  our  county's  history,  will  I  am  sure  be  of  great  interest  to  every 
one,  and  it  is  worthy  of  permanent  preservation.  The  original 
pamphlet  containing  them  has  long  been  otit  of  print,  and  is  very 
rare.  I  regret  very  much  ni}-  inability  to  procure  his  portrait  for 
insertion  in  this  work. 

Li  the  re-publication  of  Sedgwick's  address,  "Fifty  Years  of 
the  Litchfield  County  Bar,"  I  am  enabled  to  bring  the  biographies 
of  most  of  the  prominent  old  lawyers  down  to  modern  times,  pre- 
pared by  an  associate  and  Ijrother  in  the  legal  arena,  while  Judge 
Warner's  "Reminiscences"  completes  the  chain  of  those  living  and 
practicing  at  the  Bar  during  his  life.  Charles  I'>.  Phelps  published 
obituaries  of  a  number  of  his  attorney  friends  in  some  of  the 
earlier  volumes  of  Connecticut  Reports,  but  as  these  are  easily  ac- 
cessible 1  have  referred  to  them  without  republishing. 

In  the  Biographical  Xotes  I  have  endeavored  to  include  the  name 
of  every  member  admitted  to  our  Bar,  or  coming  from  elsewhere 
to  practice,  excluding  however,  those  who  have  been  debarred  for 
cause.  These  notes  are  not  intended  to  be  genealogies  or  eulogies, 
but  onl\-  the  legal  life  brief] \-  told,  and  the\-  have  nearly  all  been 
prepared  by  myself.  I  dee])ly  regret  that  there  are  so  man}-  whom 
I  have  been  unable  to  trace  be}ond  the  mere  fact  of  their  admission. 

The  section  on  the  Law  School  contains  the  list  of  its  students 
alphabetically  arranged,  with  some  other  interesting  matter  relating 
thereto.  So  man}-  references  are  made  throughout  the  volume  to 
Judges  Reeve,  Gould,  Huntington,  Bacon  and  others  i)rominently 
connected  with  its  instruction  and  management,  that  I  did  not  think 
it  wise  to  devote  more  space  to  the  further  histor}-  of  the  Law 
School. 

The  Historical  Xotcs  include  onlv  a  few  of  tlie  man}-  trials  aiid 
incidents  which  could  be  gathered  from  the  Court  Records,  but  in 
very  niany  cases  the  account  of  trials,  especially  those  of  a  criminal 
nature,  might  give  ])ain  to  sonie  friend  or  relative  of  the  accused, 
which  I  have  tried  to  avoid  doing. 


STATEMENT  OF  THE  CASE  XV 

Probably  no  county  in  the  state  furnished  the  Supreme  Court 
in  its  earher  days,  more  knotty  problems  to  solve  and  adjudicate, 
than  Litchfield  County,  and  a  full  history  of  its  "Leadin,!:^-  Cases" 
would  make  an  interesting-  volume  of  itself. 

I  have  obtained  all  the  subjects  for  illustration  which  I  coukl 
and  the  pictures  have  been  made  from  originals,  many  of  them  from 
old  and  faded  paintings,  as  I  desired  to  place  in  everlasting  re- 
membrance the  faces  of  those  gone  before.  In  two  or  three  in- 
stances I  have  duplicated,  taking  another  and  different  jjortrait  for 
the  second  picture,  after  the  first  one  was  already  in  print.  If  any- 
one thinks  it  is  easy  to  collect  a  hundred  pictures  of  as  many  per- 
sons who  have  long  since  deceased,  a  trial  will  dispel  the  illusion. 

It  is  unavoidable  that  many  errors  will  occur  in  such  a  work  as 
this.  Great  care  has  been  given  to  make  it  as  nearly  accurate  as 
possible,  and  the  compiler  will  be  very  glad  to  have  his  attention 
called  to  an\-  such  error,  so  that  in  due  time  proper  corrections  can 
be  made. 

To  the  verv  many  friends  who  have  aided  me  in  this  work,  I 
wish  to  return  my  heart-felt  thanks  for  their  assistance.  I  have 
refrained  from  making  any  acknowledgment  of  quotations  ov  ex- 
tracts because  I  have  thought  that  the  matter  itself  would  indicate 
the  source  from  which  it  was  taken.  In  conclusion  I  wish  to  say 
that  I  hope  the  perusal  of  this  book  will  aft'or<l  the  reader  as  much 
pleasure  as  it  has  the  compiler  to  prepare  it. 


Litchfield,  May  I.   ujoy. 
D.  C.  K. 


1851 


LITCHFIELD  COUNTY 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  AT  LITCHFIELD,  CONN, 


ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION,  1851 


BY 


SAMUEL  CHURCH,  LL.  D. 


CHIEF  JUSTICE  OF  THE  STATE 


«r*; 


Hun.  Sa.mukl  CiiLiaii,  C   I, 


Judge  Chvirch's  Address 


Fellow  Citizens: — 

I  have  no  leisure  now  to  offer  apologies  for  my  unadvised  con- 
sent  to  appear  before  you,  in  this  position,  on  the  present  occasion. 
Declining  years,  and  the  constant  pressure  of  other  duties,  should 
have  excused  me. 

My  residence  of  sixt_\-six  years  from  my  nativity  in  this  County, 
and  an  accjuaintance  of  half  a  century,  of  some  intimacy,  with  the 
events  which  have  transpired,  and  with  the  men  who  have  acted  in 
them  here,  and  having  been  placed  within  traditional  reach  of  our 
early  history,  I  suppose,  has  induced  the  call  upon  me  to  address 
you.  In  doing  this,  I  shall  make  no  drafts  upon  the  imagination, 
but  speak  to  you  in  the  sim])k'  idiom  of  trutliful  narrative. 

Among  the  most  ancient  and  pleasant  of  New  England  usages, 
has  been  the  annual  gathering  of  children  and  brethren  around  the 
parental  Ijoard  on  Thanksgiving  day.  The  scene  we  now  witness 
reminds  me  of  it.  Litchfield  County, — our  venerable  parent,  now 
waning  into  the  age  of  an  hundred  years,  has  called  us  here,  to 
exchange  our  nmtual  greetings,  to  see  that  she  still  lives  and  thrives, 
and  hopes  to  live  another  century. 

A  little  display  of  vanity  on  the  part  of  such  a  parent,  tlius 
surrounded  b\-  her  children,  may  be  expected;  but  speaking  by  me, 
her  rei)resenLative.  it  shall  not  be  excessive.  She  must  say  some- 
thing of  herself — of  her  birth  and  parantage — of  her  early  lift 
and  progress,  and  of  the  scenes  through  which  she  has  passed. 
She  may  be  indulged  a  little  in  speaking  of  the  children  she  has 
borne  or  reared,  and  how  they  have  got  along  in  the  world.  To  tell 
of  such  as  she  has  lost,  and  over  whose  loss  she  has  mourned ;  and 
in  the  indulgence  of  an  honest  parent's  pride,  she  may  boast  some- 
what of  many  who  survive,  and  who  have  all  through  this  wide 
country  made  her   name  and   her   family   respected. 

We  meet  not  alone  in  this  relation,  but  we  come  together  as 
brethren,  and  many  of  us  after  long  years  of  separation  and  absence, 
to  revive  the  memories  and  associations  of  former  years. 

Some  of  you  come  to  visit  the  graves  of  parents  and  friends — 
to  look  again  into  the  mansions  where  the  cradle  of  your  infancy 
was  rocked,  or  upon  the  old  foundations  where  they  stood — to  look 


4  LITCHFIELD  COLXTV  15LXCH  AND  BAR 

again  upon  the  favorite  tree,  now  full  grown,  which  your  young 
arms  clasped  so  often  in  the  climbing,  or  upon  the  great  rock  upon 
and  around  which  many  a  }oung  gambol  was  performed.  You 
come  to  enter  again,  perhaps,  the  consecrated  temples  at  whose 
altars  the  good  man  stood  who  sprinkled  you  with  the  waters  of 
baptism,  and  from  whose  lips  you  learned  the  lessons  which  have 
guided  your  footsteps  in  all  your  after  life. 

These  are  but  some  of  the  pages  in  the  history  of  early  life, 
which  it  is  pleasant  after  the  lapse  of  years  to  re-peruse.  And  now, 
if  the  spirits  of  these  dead  can  pierce  the  cloud  which  hides  our 
view  of  heaven,  they  look  down  with  a  smile  of  love  upon  your 
errand  here ;  and  when  you  shall  leave  us  on  the  morrow,  many 
of  you  will  feel  in  truth,  as  did  the  patriot  Greek,  "moriens  rem- 
iniscitur  Argos." 

A  stranger  who  looks  upon  the  map  of  Connecticut,  sees  at  its 
north-west  corner  a  darkly  shaded  section,  extending  over  almost 
the  entire  limits  of  the  County,  indicating  as  he  believes,  a  region 
of  mountains  and  rocks — of  bleak  and  frozen  barrens.  He  turns 
his  eye  from  it,  satisfied  that  this  is  one  of  the  waste  places  of  the 
State — affording  nothing  pleasant  for  the  residence  of  men.  He 
examines  much  more  complacently  the  map  of  the  coast  and  the 
navagable  streams.  But  let  the  stranger  leave  the  map,  and  come 
and  see !  He  will  find  the  mountains  which  he  anticipated — but 
he  will  find  streams  also.  He  will  find  the  forests  too,  or  the  ver- 
dant hill-sides  where  they  have  been ;  and  he  will  see  the  cattle 
on  a  thousand  hills,  and  hear  the  bleating  flocks  in  many  a  dale  and 
glen,  and  he  will  breath  an  atmosphere  of  health  and  bouyancy, 
which  the  dwellers  in  the  city  and  on  the  plain  know  little  of. 
Let  him  come,  and  we  will  show  him  that  men  live  here,  and 
women  too,  over  whom  it  would  be  ridiculous  for  the  city  popula- 
tion to  boast :  a  yoemanry  well  fitted  to  sustain  the  institutions  of 
a  free  country.  We  will  show  him  living,  moving  men ;  but  more 
than  this,  we  will  point  out  to  him  where,  among  these  hills,  were 
born  or  reared,  or  now  repose  in  the  grave,  many  of  the  men  of 
whom  he  has  read  and  heard,  whose  names  have  gone  gloriously 
into  their  country's  history,  or  who  are  now  almost  every  where 
giving  an  honorable  name  to  the  County  of  Litchfield,  and  doing- 
service  to  our  State  or  nation. 

The  extensive  and  fertile  plains  of  the  Western  country  may 
yield  richer  harvests  than  we  can  reap ;  the  slave  population  of 
the  South  may  relieve  the  planter  from  the  toil  experienced  by  a 
Northern  farmer  ;  and  the  golden  regions  of  California  may  sooner 
fill  the  pockets  with  the  precious  metals  ; — and  all  this  may  stand 
in  strong  contrast  with  what  has  been  often  called  the  rough  and 
barren  region  of  Litchfield  hills.  But  the  distinguishing  traits  of  a 
New  England  country,  which  we  love  so  well,  are  not  there  to  give 
sublimity  to  the  landscape,  fragrance  and  health  to  the  mountain 
atmosphere,  and  energy  and  enterprise  to  mind  and  character. 


CHURCH  S    CEXTEXXIAL    ADDRESS  5 

Xot  many  years  ago,  I  was  descending  the  last  hill  in  Xorfolk 
in  a  stage-coach,  in  comi)any  with  a  lady  of  the  West,  whose  for- 
mer residence  had  been  in  that  town.  As  we  came  down  upon 
the  valley  of  the  Housatonic.  with  a  full  heart  and  suffused  eyes, 
she  exclaimed.  "Oh.  how  I  love  these  hills  and  streams !  How 
much  more  pleasant  they  are  to  lue  than  the  dull  prairies  and  the 
sluggish  and  turbid  waters  of  the  ^^'estern  country."  It  was  an 
eulogy,  which  if  not  often  expressed,  the  truth  of  it  has  been  a 
thousand  times  felt  before. 

Our  Indian  ])redecessors  found  but  few  spots  among  the  hills 
of  this  Country,  which  invited  their  fixed  residence.  Here  was 
no  place  for  the  culture  of  maize  and  beans,  the  chief  articles  of 
the  Indian's  vegetable  food.  Their  settlements  were  chiefly  con- 
fined to  the  valley  of  the  Housatonic,  with  small  scattered  clans 
at  Woodbury  and  Sharon.  The  Scaticoke  tribe,  at  Kent,  was 
the  last  which  remained  among  us.  It  was  taken  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Colony  and  State :  its  lands  secured  for  its  sup- 
port. These  Indians  have  wasted  down  to  a  few  individuals,  who, 
I  believe,  still  remain  near  their  fathers'  sepulchcrs,  and  remind 
us  that  a  native  tribe  once  existed  there. 

We  now  see  but  little  to  prove  that  the  on'a^iiial  .American  race 
ever  inhabited  here.  It  left  no  monuments  but  a  few  arrow-heads, 
which  are  even  now  occasionally  discovered  near  its  former  homes 
and  upon  its  former  hunting  grounds, — and  a  sculptured  female 
figure  made  of  stone,  not  many  rears  ago  was  foiuid  in  this  town, 
and  is  now  deposited  at  Yale  College. 

There  are  other  monuments,  to  be  sure,  of  a  later  race  of  In- 
dians ;  but  they  are  of  the  white  man's  workmanship, — the  quit- 
claim deeds  of  the  Indians'  title  to  their  lands !  These  are  found 
in  several  of  the  Towns  in  the  County,  and  upon  the  public  re- 
cords, signed  with  marks  uncouth,  and  names  unspeakable,  and 
executed  with  all  the  solemn  mockery  of  legal  forms. — These  are 
still  referred  to,  as  evidence  of  fair  ])urchase !  Our  laws  have 
sedulously  protected  the  minor  and  the  married  woman  from  the 
consequences  of  their  best  considered  acts ;  but  a  deed  from  an 
Indian,  who  knew  neither  the  value  of  the  land  he  was  required 
to  relinquish,  nor  the  amount  of  the  consideration  he  was  to  re- 
ceive for  it,  nor  the  import  or  effect  of  the  paper  upon  which  he 
scribbled  his  mark,  has  been  called  a  fair  purchase  ! 

The  hill-lands  of  this  County  were  only  traversed  by  the  In- 
dians as  the  comiuon  himting  grounds  of  the  tribes  which  inhab- 
ited the  valleys  of  the  Tunxis  and  Connecticut  rivers  on  the  east- 
ern, and  the  valley  of  the  Housatonic  on  the  western  side. 

The  first  settlers  of  this  County  did  not  meet  the  Indian  here 

in   his   unspoiled   native   character.     The    race   was    dispirited   and 

submissive — probably  made   up  of   fugitives   from   the  aggressions 

of   the   early  English   emigrants   on   the   coast, — the   successors   of 

^  more  spirited  tribes,  which,  to  avoid  contact  with  the  whites,  had 


6  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

migrated  onward  toward  the  setting  sun.  These  Indians  were 
Hke  the  ivy  of  the  forest,  which  dis])lays  all  its  beauties  in  the 
shade,  but  droops  and  refuses  to  flourish  in  the  open  sunshine. 

Previous  to  the  accession  of  James  II.  to  the  throne  of  Eng- 
land, and  before  our  chartered  rights  were  threatened  by  the  ar- 
rival of  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  the  territory  now  comprising  the 
County  of  Litchfield  was  very  little  known  to  the  Colonial  Gov- 
ernment at  Hartford.  The  town  of  Woodburw  then  large  in  ex- 
tent, had  been  occupied  some  years  earlier  than  this,  by  Rev. 
j\Ir.  Walker's  congregation,  from  Stratford.  The  other  parts  of 
the  County  were  noticed  only  as  a  wilderness,  and  denominated 
the  Western  Lands.  Still  it  was  supposed,  that  at  some  time  they 
might  be,  to  some  extent,  inhabited  and  worth  something.  At 
any  rate,  they  were  believed  to  be  worth  the  pains  of  keeping  out 
of  the  way  of  the  new  government  of  Sir  Edmund,  which  was 
then  apprehended  to  l^e  near.  To  avoid  his  authority  over  these 
lands,  and  to  preserve  them  for  a  future  and  lietter  time  of  dispo- 
sal, they  were  granted,  by  the  Assembly  of  the  Colony,  to  the 
towns  of  Hartford  and  Windsor,  in  1686. — at  least,  so  much  of 
them  as  lay  east  of  the  Housatonic  river.  T  do  not  stop  to  exam- 
ine the  moral  quality  of  this  grant,  which  ma_\'  be  reasonably 
doubted  ;  and  it  was  soon  after  followed  hx  the  usual  consequences 
of  grants,  denominated  by  law\-ers.  consfrucfivciv  fraudulent — dis- 
pute and  contention. 

Upon  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary,  in  1688,  and  after 
the  Colony  Charter  liad  found  its  way  back  from  the  hollow  oak 
to  the  Secretary's  office,  the  Colonial  Assembly  attempted  to  re- 
sume this  grant,  and  to  reclaim  the  title  of  these  lands  for  the 
Colony.  This  was  resisted  lyv  the  towns  of  Hartford  and  Wind- 
sor, which  relied  u])on  the  inviolabilit}'  of  plighted  faith  and  pub- 
lic grants.  'I'he  towns  not  only  denied  tlie  right,  but  actually 
resisted  the  power  of  the  Assembly,  in  the  resumption  of  their 
solemn  deed.  This  i)roduced  riots  and  attempts  to  break  the 
jail  in  Hartford,  in  which  se\-era]  of  tlic  resisting  inhabitants  of 
Hartford  and  Windsor  were  confined. 

It  ^vould  1)e  found  difficult  for  the  Jurists  of  the  present  day, 
educated  in  the  ])rinciples  of  Constitutional  Law,  to  justify  the 
Asseml)l\  in  tlie  recision  of  its  own  grant,  and  it  can  not  but  ex- 
cite a  little  sur])rise,  that  the  ])oliticians  of  that  day,  who  had  not 
yet  ceased  to  complain  of  the  mother  country  for  its  attempts,  by 
writs  of  qiio  warranto,  to  seize  our  charter,  should  so  soon  be  en- 
gaged, and  witliout  the  forms  of  law,  too.  in  attempts  of  a  kindred 
character  against  their  own  grantees.  Xo  wonder  that  resistance 
followed,  and  it  was  more  than  half  successful,  as  it  resulted  in 
a  compromise,  which  confirmed  to  the  claimants  under  the  towns 
the  lands  in  tlie  town  of  Litchfield  and  a  part  of  tlie  town  of  Xew 
Mil  ford.  The  other  portions  of  the  territory  were  intended  to 
be   e(|uall\-    divided   between   the    Colony   and   the   claiming   towns. 


CHURCH  S    CENTENNIAL    ADDRESS  7 

Thus  Torrington,  Barkhamsted,  Colebrook,  and  a  part  of  Har- 
winton,  were  appropriated  to  Windsor ;  Hartland,  Winchester, 
Xew  Hartford,  and  the  other  ]>art  of  Harwinton,  were  reUnquish- 
ed  to  Hartford ;  and  the  remaining  lands  in  dispute,  now  consti- 
tuting the  towns  of  Norfolk.  Goshen.  Canaan,  Kent,  Sharon  and 
Salisbur\-.  were  retained  by  the  Colony.  These  claims  having 
at  length  been  adjusted,  the  western  lands  began  to  be  explored, 
and  their  facilities  for  cultivation  to  be  known. 

Woodbury,  as  I  have  before  suggested,  by  several  \ears  our  el- 
der sister  in  this  new  family  of  towns,  began  its  settlement  in  1674. 
The  Church  at  Stratford  had  been  in  contention,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Walker,  with  a  portion  of  that  Church  and  people,  removed  to  the 
fertile  region  of  Pomperauge.  soon  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
Woodbury,  and  then  including,  beside  the  present  town,  also  the 
region  composing  the  towns  of  Southbury,  Bethlem  and  Roxbury. 

Pomperauge  is  said  to  have  felt  some  of  the  effects  of  Philip's 
war — enough,  at  least,  to  add  another  to  the  many  thrilling  scenes 
of  Indian  depredation,  so  well  drawn  by  the  author  of  [Mount  Hope. 

Xew  Milford  next  followed  in  the  course  of  settlement.  Thi<v 
commenced  in  1707.  Its  increase  of  population  was  slow  until 
1716,  when  Rev.  Daniel  P)oardman,  from  Wethersfield,  was  or- 
dained as  the  first  minister.  This  gentleman  was  the  ancestor  of 
the  several  distinguished  families  and  individuals  of  the  same 
name,  who  have  since  been  and  now  are  residents  of  that  town. 
His  influence  over  the  Indian  tribe  and  its  Sachem  in  that  vicinity, 
was  i)owerful  and  restraining,  and  so  much  confidence  had  this 
good  man  and  his  family  in  the  fidelity  of  his  Indian  friends,  it  is 
said,  that  when  his  lady  was  earnestly  warned  to  fly  from  a  threaten- 
ed savage  attack,  she  coolly  rci)lied,  that  she  would  go  as  soon  as 
she  had  put  things  to  rights  about  her  house,  and  had  knit  round 
to  her  seam  needle  !  The  original  white  inhabitants  were  emigrants 
from  Milford.  from  which  it  derives  its  name. 

Emigrants  from  the  Manor  of  Livingston,  in  the  Xew  "S'ork 
Colony  made  Indian  purchases  and  began  a  settlement  at  Wea- 
togue.  in  Salisbury,  as  earlv  as  1720.  After  the  sale  of  the  town- 
ship in  1737,  the  population  increased  ra])idly, — coming  in  from  the 
towns  of  Lebanon.  Litchfield,  and  man\-  other  places,  so  that  it  ^\■as 
duly  organized  in  1741,  and  settled  its  minister.  Rev.  Jonothan 
Lee,  in  1744. 

The  first  inliabitants  of  Litchfield  came  imder  the  Hartford  and 
\\  inds(M-  title,  in  1721.  and  chiefly  from  Hartford.  \\'indsor  and 
Lebanon.  This  territoiy,  and  a  large  lake  in  its  south-west  sec- 
tion, was  known  as  r.antam.  Whether  it  was  so  called  bv  the  In- 
dians, has  been  doubted,  and  is  not  well  settled. 

The  settlenient  of  the  other  towns  commenced  soon  after,  and 
progressed  .--teadily.  \et  slowly.  The  town  of  Colebrook  was  the 
last  enrolled  in  this  jraternity.  and  settled  its  first  minister.  Rev. 
Jonathan  Edwards,  in  1795.     Rev.  Rufus  Rabcock.  a  Baptist  min- 


8  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

ister,  had,  tor  some'  time  before  this,  resided  and  officiated  in  the 
town. 

One  general  characteristic  marked  the  whole  population ;  it  was 
gathered  chiefly  from  the  towns  already  settled  in  the  Colony,  and 
with  but  few  emigrants  from  Alassachusetts.  Our  immediate  an- 
cestors were  religious  men.  and  religion  was  the  ruling  element ; 
but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  it  absorbed  all  others. 

I  shall  not  detain  you  with  an  eulogium  on  Puritan  character. 
This  may  be  found  stereotyped  every  where — not  onl_\'  in  books  and 
speeches,  but  much  more  accuratel\-  in  its  influence  and  eft"ects,  not 
in  New  England  alone,  but  throughout  this  nation.  Our  American 
ancestors  were  Englishmen,  descendants  of  the  same  men,  and  in- 
heritors of  the  same  principles,  by  which  Magna  Charta  was  estab- 
lished at  Runny-mede. — They  were  Anglo-Saxons,  inspired  with 
the  same  s])irit  of  independence  which  has  marked  them  every  where, 
and  especially  through  the  long  period  of  well  defined  English  his- 
tory, and  which  is  destined  in  its  further  developments  to  give  tone 
and  impress  to  the  political  and  religious  institutions  of  Christen- 
dom. So  much  has  been  said  and  written  of  the  Puritans,  I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  some  believe  that  they  were  a  distinct  race, 
and  i^erhaps  of  a  different  complexion  and  language  from  their 
other  countrymen ;  whereas,  they  were  only  Enghshmen,  generally 
of  the  Plebian  caste,  and  with  more  of  the  energies  and  many  of  the 
frailties  and  imperfections  common  to  humanity.  If  our  first  settlers 
here  cherished  more  firmly  the  religious  elements  of  their  character 
than  any  other.,  the  spirit  of  independence  to  which  I  have  alluded 
developed  another — the  love  of  money,  and  an  ingenuity  in  grat- 
ifying it. 

Since  the  extent  and  resources  of  this  Count\-  have  been  better 
known,  the  wonder  is  often  expressed,  how  such  an  unpromising 
region  as  this  County  could  have  invited  a  population  at  first :  but 
herein  we  misconceive  the  condition  of  our  fathers.  Here,  as  they 
supposed,  was  the  last  land  to  be  explored  and  occupied  in  their 
day.  They  had  no  where  else  to  go,  and  the  growing  population 
of  the  east,  as  well  as  the  barren  soil  of  the  coast,  impelled  them 
westward.  Of  the  north,  beyond  the  ]\Iassachusetts  Colony,  noth- 
ing was  known :  only  Canada  and  the  frozen  regions  of  Nova  Scotia 
had  been  heard  of.  On  the  west  was  another  Colony,  but  a  dif- 
ferent people;  and  still  beyond,  was  an  unknown  realm,  possessed 
by  savage  men,  of  whom  New  England  had  seen  enough  ;  and  not 
much  behind  this,  according  to  the  geography  of  that  day,  was  the 
Western  Ocean,  referred  to  in  the  Charter.  A  visible  hand  of 
Providence  seems  to  have  guided  our  fathers'  goings.  Had  the 
vallev  of  the  Susquehanna  been  known  to  them  then,  they  would 
but  the  sooner  have  furnished  the  history  of  the  massacre  of 
Wyoming. 

li  there  were  here  the  extensive  and  almost  impenatrable  ever- 
:>-lade   of   the   Green-Woods,   the   high    hills   of    Goshen,    Litchfield 


g-i 


CHL^RCHS    CENTENNIAL    ADDRESS  9 

and  Co'-nwall,  and  heavy  forests  every  where — these  were  trifles 
then  ill  the  way  of  a  Xew  England  man's  calculation,  and  had  been 
ever  since  the  people  of  the  May  Flower  and  the  Arabella  and  their 
descendants  had  been  crowding  their  way  back  among  the  forests. 
These,  and  a  thousand  other  obstacles,  were  surmounted,  with  hard- 
ly a  suspicion  that  they  were  obstacles  at  all,  and  every  township 
began  ere  long  to  exhibit  a  well  ordered,  organized  society. 

This  was  no  missionary  tield,  after  the  manner  of  modern  new 
settlements.  Every  little  Colony,  as  it  became  organized  and  ex- 
tended from  town  to  town,  either  took  its  minister  along  with  it,  or 
called  him  soon  after.  He  became  one  v>ith  his  people,  wedded 
to  them  almost  by  sacramental  bonds,  indissoluble.  A  Prinuis 
inter  pares,  he  settled  on  his  own  domain,  appropriated  to  his  use  by 
the  ]:)roprietors  of  every  town,  and  he  cultivated  with  his  own  hands 
his  own  soil,  and  at  his  death  was  laid  down  among  his  parishoners 
and  neighbors  in  the  common  cemetery,  with  little  of  monumental  ex- 
travagance to  distinguish  his  resting  place.  The  meeting-house  was 
soon  seen  at  the  central  point  of  each  town,  modestly  elevated  above 
surrtiunding  buildings,  and  by  its  side  the  school-house,  as  its 
nursling  child  or  younger  sister,  and  the  minister  and  the  master 
were  the  oracles  of  each  community.  The  development  of  the 
Christian  man,  spiritual,  intellectual  and  physical,  was  the  necessary 
result  of  such  an  organization  of  society  as  this. 

The  original  settlers  of  this  County  were  removed  two  or  three 
generations  from  the  first  emigrants  from  England,  and  some  of 
the  more  harsh  pecularities  of  that  race  may  well  be  supposed,  ere 
this  time,  to  have  become  modified,  or  to  have  subsided  entirely. 
If  a  little  of  the  spirit  of  Arch-Rishop  Laud,  transgressing  the 
boundaries  of  Realm  and  Church,  had  found  its  way  over  the  ocean, 
and  was  developed  tmder  a  new  condition  of  society  here,  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at :  it  was  the  spirit  of  the  age,  though  none  the 
better  for  that,  and  none  the  more  excusable,  whether  seen  in  Laud 
or  Mather — m  a  Roya'  Parliament,  or  a  Colonial  Assembly. 

Less  of  these  peculiarities  appeared  in  Connecticut  than  in  Mass- 
achusetts ;  and  at  the  late  period  when  this  County  was  settled,  the 
sense  of  .oppression  inflicted  by  the  mother  country,  whether  real 
or  fancied,  was  a  little  forgotten,  and  of  course  neither  Quakers, 
Prayer  Books  nor  Christmas  were  the  object  of  penal  legislation. 
A  more  tolerant,  and  of  course  a  better  spirit,  came  with  our  fathers 
into  this  County,  than  had  before  existed  elsewhere  in  the  Colony, 
and,  if  I  mistake  not.  it  has  ever  since  been  producing  here  its  legiti- 
mate effects,  and  in  some  degree  has  distinguished  the  char- 
acter and  the  action  of  Litchfield  County  throughout  its  entire  his- 
tory, as  many  facts  could  be  made  to  prove. 

Before  the  year  175 1.  this  territory  had  been  attached  to  dif- 
ferent Counties — most  of  it  to  the  County  of  Hartford :  the  towns 
of  Sharon  and  Salisbury  to  the  County  of  Xew  Haven  ;  and  many 
of  the   early   titles   and   of   proliate   proceedings   of   several   of   the 


lO  LITCIIFIKLD  COLXTV   UHNCli  AND  BAR 

towns,  before  their  org-anization  or  incori)oration,  may  be  found  on 
the  records  of  more  early  settled  towns.  The  first  settlements  of 
estates  in  Canaan  are  recorded  in  Woodbury,  and  many  early  deeds 
are  on  record  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  in  Hartford. 

In  175 1,  the  condition  of  the  population  of  these  towns  was  such 
as  to  demand  the  organization  of  a  new  County,  and  the  subject 
was  extensively  discussed  at  the  town  meetings.  As  is  always 
true,  on  such  occasions,  a  diversity  of  opinions  as  well  as  the  or- 
dinary amount  of  excited  feeling  existed,  regarding  the  location 
of  the  shire  town.  Cornwall  and  Canaan  made  their  claims  and  had 
their  advocates — but  the  chief  contest  was  between  Litchfield  and 
Goshen.  The  latter  town  was  supposed  to  occupy  the  geographical 
center,  and  many  persons  had  settled  there  in  expectation  that 
that  would  become  the  fixed  seat  of  justice,  and,  among  others, 
Oliver  Wolcott,  afterward  Governor  of  the  State.  But  at  the 
October  session  of  the  General  Court  in  1751,  the  new  County  was 
established  with  Litchfield  as  the  Count \-  Town,  under  the  name 
of  Litchfield  County. 

Litchfield  County,  associated  with  the  thought  of  one  hundred 
vears  ago !  A  brief  space  in  a  nation's  history ;  but  such  an 
liundred  years ! — more  eventful  than  any  other  since  the  intro- 
duction of  our  Holy  Religion  into  the  world.  This  name  speaks 
to  us  of  home  and  all  the  hallowed  memories  of  youth  and  years 
beyond  our  reach, — of  our  truant  frolics,  our  school  boy  trials,  our 
youthful  aspirations  and  hopes  ;  and,  perhaps,  of  more  tender  and 
romantic  sympathies  ;  and  many  will  recall  the  misgivings,  and  yet 
the  stern  resolves,  with  which  they  commenced  the  various  avoca- 
tions of  life  in  which  they  have  since  been  engaged.  And  from  this 
point,  too,  we  look  back  to  ties  which  once  bound  us  to  parents, 
l3rothers,  companions,  friends — then  strong — now  sundered  !  and 
which  have  been  breaking  and  breaking,  until  many  of  us  find  our- 
selves standing,  almost  alone,  amidst  what  a  few  years  ago  was  an 
unborn  generation. 

Litchfield  County !  Go  where  you  will  through  this  broad 
country,  and  speak  aloud  this  name,  and  you  will  hear  a  response, 
"That  is  my  own,  my  native  land."  Tt  will  come  from  some  whom 
you  will  find  in  the  halls  of  Legislation,  in  the  I'ulpit,  on  the  liench, 
at  the  Bar,  by  the  sick  man's  couch,  in  the  marts  of  Trade,  by  the 
Plow,  or  as  wandering  spirits  in  some  of  the  tried  or  untried  ex- 
periments of  life.  And  sure  I  am,  that  there  is  not  to  be  found  a 
son  of  this  County,  be  his  residence  ever  so  remote,  who  would  not 
feel  humbled  to  learn  that  this  name  was  to  be  no  longer  heard 
among  the  civil  divisions  of  his  native  State. 

The  usual  officers,  made  necessary  by  the  erection  of  the  new 
County,  were  immediately  appointed  by  the  General  Court.  William 
Preston,  Esq.,  of  Woodbury,  was  the  first  Chief  Justice  of  the 
County,  and  his  Associates  were  John  Williams.  Esq.,  of  Sharon, 
Sanmel  Canfield,  of  Xew  Milford,  and  b^benezer  Marsh,  of  Litch- 


CHURCH  S    CENTEXXIAL    ADDRESS  II 

field.  Isaac  oaldwin,  Esq.,  was  the  first  Clerk,  and  the  first  Sherifif 
was  Oliver  Wolcott,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  again.  The  County 
Court,  at  its  first  session  in  December  of  the  same  year,  appointed 
Samuel  Pettibone.  Esq..  of  Goshen,  to  be  King's  Attorney,  who 
was,  within  a  few  years,  succeeded  by  Reynold  ]\Iarvin,  Esq.,  of 
this  village,  and  these  two  gentlemen  were  all  in  this  County,  in 
this  capacity,  who  ever  represented  the  King's  majesty  in  that  ad- 
ministration of  criminal  justice. 

The  tenure  of  official  place  in  the  early  days  of  the  Common- 
wealth, was  more  permanent  than  since  party  subserviency  has  in 
some  degree  taken  the  place  of  better  ([ualifications.  The  changes 
upon  the  bench  of  the  County  Court  were  not  frequent.  The  office 
of  Chief  Judge,  from  the  time  of  Judge  Preston  to  the  time  of  his 
successors,  who  are  now  alive,  have  been  John  Williams,  of  Sharon. 
Oliver  Wolcott,  Daniel  Sherman,  of  Woodbury.  Joshua  Porter,  of 
Salisbury.  Aaron  Austin,  of  Xew  Hartford,  also  a  member  of  the 
Council,  and  Augustus  Pettibone,  of  Xorfolk.  T  can  not  at  this 
time  present  a  catalogue  of  Associate  Judges.  Tt  has  been  com- 
posed of  the  most  worthy  and  com]ietent  citizens  of  the  County — 
gentlemen  of  high  influence  and  resj^ect  in  the  several  towns  of  their 
residence. 

In  the  office  of  SherifiF.  GovcruDr  Wolcott  was  succeeded  by 
Lynde  Lord,  David  Smith,  John  R.  Landon.  ]\Ioses  Seymour,  Jr.. 
and  Ozias  Seymour,  of  this  village,  and  the  successors  of  these 
gentlemen  are  still  surviving. 

Mr.  Marvin  was  succeeded  in  the  office  of  State's  Attorney,  by 
Andrew  Adams.  Tapping  Reeve.  Uriah  Thacy,  Xathaniel  Smith, 
John  Allen,  Uriel  Holmes,  and  Elisha  Sterling,  whose  successors, 
with  a  single  exception,  still  survive. 

Hon.  Frederick  Wolcott  succeeded  Mr.  luildwin  in  the  office 
of  Clerk,  and  this  place  he  held,  undisturl)e(l  by  party  influences, 
for  forty  years,  and  until  nearly  the  time  of  his  death  in  1836. 

The  common  Prison  first  erected  was  a  small  wooden  building, 
near  the  late  dwelling  house  of  Roger  Cook,  Esq.,  on  the  north 
side  of  East  street.  This  stood  but  few  years,  and  in  its  place  a 
more  coiumodious  one  was  built,  nearly  on  the  same  foundation. 
The  present  Prison  was  built  in  1812,  and  essentially  improved 
within  a  few  years.  The  first  Court  House  stood  on  the  open 
grounds  a  little  easterly  from  the  West  Park,  and  ma\'  still  be  seen 
in  the  rear  of  the  buildings  on  the  south  side  of  W'est  street.  Tt 
was  a  small  building,  but  in  it  were  often  witnessed  some  of  the 
most  able  efforts  of  American  eloquence.  In  this  humble  Temple 
of  Justice,  Hon.  S.  \A'.  Johnston  of  Stratford.  Edwards  of  New 
Haven,  Reeve.  Tracy,  Allen,  and  the  Smiths  of  this  County,  ex- 
hibited some  of  the  best  essays  of  forensic  power.  The  present 
Court  House  was  erected  in  1798. 

The  early  progress  of  the  County  presents  but  a  few  incidents 
of  sufficient  note  to  retain  a  place  in  its  traditionary  history.     The 


12  LITCliFllvJa)  COL  X'iV   J'.KXCJl   AND  JiAR 

apprehension  of  savage  incursions  had  passed  away,  and  the  ]:)eople 
were  left  unchsturhed  to  carry  out,  to  their  necessary  results,  what 
might  have  heen  expected  from  the  spirit  and  enterprise  which 
brought  them  hitlier.  The  old  French  War,  as  it  has  since  been 
called,  disturbed  them  but  little.  Some  of  the  towns  in  the  County, 
moved  b\-  a  loyal  im])ulse,  and  a  legitimate  hatred  of  France,  as 
well  as  hostilitv  to  Indians  in  its  service,  furnished  men  and  officers 
in  aid  of  some  of  the  expeditions  to  the  northern  frontier. 

The  pioneers  here  were  agriculturists.  They  came  with  no 
knowledge  or  care  for  any  other  pursuit,  and  looked  for  no  greater 
results  than  the  enjoyment  of  religious  privileges,  the  increase  of 
their  estates  b\'  removing  the  heavy  forest  and  adding  other  acres 
to  their  original  purchases,  and  with  the  hope,  perhaps,  of  sending 
an  active  boy  to  the  College.  Of  manufactures,  they  knew  nothing. 
The  grist-mill  and  saw-mill,  the  blacksmith  and  clothier's  shops, — 
all  as  indispensable  as  the  plow  and  the  axe, — they  provided  for  as 
among  the  necessaries  of  a  farmer's  life. 

Thus  they  toiled  on,  till  the  hill-sides  and  the  valleys  every 
where  showed  the  fenced  field  and  the  comfortable  dwelling.  The 
spinning  wheel  was  in  every  house,  and  the  loom  in  every  neigh- 
borhood, and  almost  every  article  of  clothing  was  the  product  of 
female  domestic  industry.  Intercourse  with  each  other  was  diffi- 
cult. The  hills  were  steep,  and  the  valleys  miry,  and  the  means 
of  conveyance  confined  to  the  single  horse  with  saddle  and  pillion, 
with  no  other  carriage  than  the  ox-cart  in  summer  and  the  sled  in 
the  winter.  The  deep  winter  snows  c^ften  obstructed  even  the  use 
of  the  sled,  and  then  resort  was  had  to  snow-shoes.  These  were 
made  of  a  light  rim  of  wood  bent  into  the  form  of  an  ox-bow, 
though  smaller,  perforated  and  w'oven  into  a  net  work  with  thongs 
of  raw-hide,  leather  or  deer  skin,  and  Avhen  attached  to  the  com- 
mon shoe  enabled  the  walker  to  travel  u|)on  the  surface  of  die 
snow.  Four-wheeled  carriages  were  not  introduced  into  general 
use  until  after  the  Revolution.  Ladies,  old  and  young,  thought  no 
more  of  fatigue  in  performing  long  journeys  over  the  rough  roads 
of  the  County,  on  horseback,  than  the  ladies  of  our  times  in  mak- 
ing trips  by  easy  stages,  in  coaches  or  cars. 

The  County  Town  constituted  a  common  center,  where  the 
leading  men  of  the  County  met  during  the  terms  of  the  Courts, 
and  they  saw  but  little  of  each  other  at  other  times.  The  course 
of  their  business  was  in  difiierent  directions.  The  north-west  towns 
found  their  markets  on  the  Hudson  River — the  southern  towns  at 
Derby  and  New  Haven — and  the  eastern  ones  at  Hartford.  In 
the  mean  while,  and  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  of  the 
Revolution,  nearly  every  town  had  its  settled  Pastor,  and  the  schools 
were  every  where  spead  over  the  territory. 

No  manufacturing  interest  was  prevalent  in  the  County  at  first. 
The  policy  and  laws  of  the  mother  country  had  discouraged  this. 
r)Ut  the  rich  iron  mine  which  had  been  earlv  discovered  in  Salis- 


church's  cextexnial  address  13 

burw  and  the  iron  ore  found  in  Kent,  could  not  lie  neglected.  Iron 
was  indispensable,  and  its  transportation  from  the  coast  almost 
mipracticable.  The  ore  bed  in  Salisbury  had  been  granted  by  the 
Colonial  Assembly  to  Daniel  Uissell  of  Windsor,  as  early  as  1731, 
and  produces  a  better  quality  of  iron  than  any  imported  from  abroad 
or  found  elsewhere  at  home. 

The  manufacture  of  bloomed  iron  in  the  region  of  the  ore.  com- 
menced before  the  organization  of  the  County.  Thomas  Lamb 
erected  a  forge  at  Lime  Rock,  in  Salisbury,  as  early  as  1734, — 
probablv  the  first  in  the  Colony.  This  experiment  was  soon  ex- 
tensively followed  in  Salisbury.  Canaan.  Cornwall  and  Kent,  and 
there  were  forges  erected  also  in  Norfolk,  Colebrook  and  Litch- 
field. The  ore  was  often  transported  from  the  ore  beds  to  the 
forge  in  leathern  sacks,  upon  horses.  I'ar  iron  became  here  a  sort 
of  circulating  medium,  and  promissory  notes  were  more  frequent- 
ly made  payal)le  in  iron  than  in  money. 

The  first  Furnace  in  the  Colony  was  built  at  Lakeville,  in  Salis- 
bury, in  1762,  by  John  Hazelton  and  Ethan  Allen  of  Salisbury, 
and  Samuel  Forbes  of  Canaan.  This  property  fell  into  the  hands 
of  Richard  Smith,  an  English  gentleman,  a  little  before  the  war 
of  the  Revolution.  Ui)on  this  event  he  returned  to  England,  and 
the  State  took  possession  of  the  furnace,  and  it  was  employed,  un- 
der the  agency  of  Col.  Joshua  Porter,  in  the  manufacture  of  can- 
non, shells  and  shot,  for  the  use  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the 
countrw  and  sometimes  under  the  supervision  of  Goverucur  Mor- 
ris and  John  Jay,  agents  of  the  Continental  Congress:  and  after 
the  war,  the  navy  of  the  United  States  received,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  the  guns  for  its  heaviest  shi]:)S,  from  the  same  cstalilishment. 

Tt  will  not  be  any  i)art  of  my  purpose  to  become  the  Ecclesiasti- 
cal historian  of  the  County.  This  duty  will  be  better  performed 
1)\-  otiier  pens.  And  yet,  the  true  character  and  condition  of  a 
people  can  not  be  well  understood  without  some  study  of  their  re- 
ligious state. 

T  have  alread\-  suggested,  that  there  was  here  a  more  tolerant 
and  better  spirit  than  existed  among  the  first  emigrants  to  Ply- 
mouth and  Massachusetts.  The  churches  were  insulated,  and  in 
a  manner  shut  out  from  the  disturbing  causes  which  had  agitated 
other  ])ortions  of  the  Colony.  I  do  not  learn  from  that  full  and 
faithful  chronicler  of  religious  dissensions.  Dr.  Trumbull,  that  there 
was  in  this  County  so  nmch  of  the  metaphysical  and  subtle  in  the- 
ology, as  had  produced  such  bitter  effects  at  an  earlier  time,  in  the 
churches  at  Hartford.  New  Haven.  Stratford  ard  Wallingford. 
The  Pastors  were  men  of  peace,  who  had  sought  tli(  retired  ]iarishes 
over  here  in  the  hills  and  valleys,  without  much  p/ide  of  learning, 
and  without  ambitious  views.  The  influence  of  the  Pastor  here 
was  Daternal ;  the  eloquence  of  his  example  was  more  potent  than 
the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit.  Tt  might  be  expected,  that  by  such  a 
Clergy,  a  deep  and  broad  foundation  of  future  good  would  be  laid, — 


14  LlTCUFlIiLU  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

a  fixed  Protestant  sentiment  and  its  legitimate  consequence,  in- 
dependent opinion  and  energetic  action. 

There  was  here,  also,  very  early,  another  element  which  modi- 
fied and  liberalized  the  temper  of  the  fathers,  who  had  smarted, 
as  they  supposed,  under  the  persecutions  of  an  English  home  and 
English  laws.  A  little  alloy  was  intermixed  in  the  religious 
crucible,  which,  if  it  did  not,  in  the  opinion  of  all,  render  the  mass 
more  precious,  at  least  made  it  more  malleable,  and  better  fitted 
for  practical  use.  There  was  not  in  this  Country  an  universal 
dislike  of  the  Chuch  of  England.  We  were  removed  farther  back 
in  point  of  time,  as  I  have  said,  from  the  original  causes  of  hostility. 
\\'e  were  Englishmen,  boasting  of  English  Common  Law  as  our 
birthright  and  our  inheritance,  and  into  this  was  interwoven  many 
of  the  principles  and  usages  of  English  Ecclesiastical  polity. 
This  respect  for  the  institutions  of  the  mother  country,  though 
long  felt  by  some,  was  first  developed  in  the  College,  and  extended 
sooner  and  more  widely  in  this  County  than  any  where  else ;  so 
that  congregations  worshiping  with  the  Liturgy  of  the  English 
Church  were  soon  found  in  Woodbury,  Watertown,  Plymouth, 
Harwinton,  Litchfield,  Kent,  Sharon  and  Salisbury,  and  were  com- 
posed of  men  of  equal  intelligence  and  purity  of  character  with 
their  neighbors  of  the  Congregational  Churches.  And  yet,  enough 
of  traditional  prejudice  still  remained,  uncorrected  by  time  or  im- 
partial examinations,  often  to  subject  the  friends  and  members  of 
the  Church  of  England  to  insult  and  injustice.  Some  of  it  remains 
still  but  too  little  to  irritate  or  disturb  a  Christian  spirit. 

The  spirit  of  emigration,  that  same  Anglo-Saxon  temperament 
which  brought  our  ancestors  into  the  County,  and  which  constantly 
])ushes  forward  to  the  trial  of  unknown  fortune,  began  its  mani- 
festitations  before  the  Revolution,  and  sought  its  gratification  first 
in  Vermont.  Vermont  is  the  child  of  this  County.  We  gave  to 
her  her  first  Governor,  and  three  Governors  besides  :  as  many  as 
three  Senators  in  Congress,  and  also  many  of  her  most  efficient 
founders  and  early  distinguished  citizens, — Chittendens,  Aliens,  Ga- 
lushas,  Chipmans,  Skinner  and  others.  The  attitude  assumed  by 
\^ermont  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  in  respect 
to  Canada  on  the  north  and  the  threatening  States  of  New  York 
and  New  Hampshire  on  either  side,  was  peculiar  and  delicate,  and 
demanded  the  most  adroit  policy  to  secure  her  purpose  of  inde- 
pendence. Tn  her  dilemma,  her  most  sagacious  men  resorted  to 
the  counsels  of  their  old  friends  of  Litchfield  County,  and  it  is  said 
that  her  final  course  was  shaped,  and  her  designs  accomplished, 
by  the  advice  of  a  confidential  council,  assembled  at  the  house  of 
Governor  Wolcott  in  this  village. 

Perhaps  no  community  ever  existed,  with  fewer  causes  of  dis- 
turbance or  discontent  than  were  felt  here,  before  the  complaints 
of  British  exaction  were  heard  from  Boston.  But  the  first  mur- 
murings  from  the  East  excited  our  fjuiet  population  to  action,  and  in 


church's  ce:nte;nnial  address  15 

nearly  every  town  in  the  County,  meetings  of  sympathy  were  holden, 
and  strong  resolves  adopted,  responsive  to  the  Boston  complainings. 
The  tax  on  tea  and  the  stamp  duty  were  trifles.  The  people  of 
this  County  knew  nothing  of  them,  and  probably  cared  no  more. 
The  principle  of  the  movement  was  deeper — more  fundamental ; 
the  love  of  self  government — -"the  glorious  privilege  of  being  in- 
dependent!" The  excitement  was  general  throughout  the  Country. 
Individuals  opposed  it,  and  from  different,  though  equally  pure  mo- 
tives. Some  supposed  resistance  to  the  laws  to  be  hopeless  at  that 
time,  and  advised  to  wait  for  more  strength  and  resources ;  others 
were  influenced  by  religious  considerations,  just  as  pure  and  as 
potent  as  had  influenced  their  fathers  aforetime ;  others  had  a  deeper 
seated  sense  of  loyalty,  and  the  obligations  of  sworn  allegiance. 
But  the  County  was  nearly  unanimous  in  its  resistance  to  British 
claims,  and  saw  in  them  the  commencement  of  a  Colonial  servitude, 
degrading,  and  threatening  the  future  progress  of  the  country,  in 
its  destined  path  to  wealth  and  glory.  T  believe  no  individual  of 
distinction  in  the  County  took  arms  against  the  cause  of  the  country. 

Our  remote  position  from  the  scenes  of  strife  and  the  march  of 
armies,  will  not  permit  me  to  speak  to  yovi  of  battle-fields,  of  vic- 
tories won  or  villages  sacked  any  where  in  our  sight.  We  were 
only  in  the  pathway  between  the  dift'ercnt  wings  of  the  American 
army.  I  have  no  means  of  determining  the  amount  of  force  in  men 
or  money  furnished  by  this  County  in  aid  of  the  war.  From  the 
tone  of  the  votes  and  resolves  passed  at  the  various  town-meetings, 
and  front  the  many  officers  and  men.  Continental  and  militia,  who 
joined  the  army,  I  may  venture  the  assertion,  that  no  county  in  New 
England,  of  no  greater  population  than  this,  gave  more  efficient 
aid  in  various  ways,  or  manifested  bv  its  acts,  more  devoted  pa- 
triotism. 

Sheldon's  was,  I  believe,  the  first  regiment  of  cavalry  which 
joined  the  army.  Tt  was  raised  in  this  County  chiefly,  and  com- 
manded by  Col.  Elisha  Sheldon  of  Salisbury.  The  services  of 
this  regiment  have  been  favorably  noticed  by  the  writers  of  that 
day,  and  on  various  occasions  called  forth  the  public  thanks  of 
the  Commander-in-Chief.  Among  other  officers  attached  to  it,  was 
IMajor  Benjamin  Tallmadge,  afterwards  and  for  man\'  years  a  dis- 
tinguished merchant  and  gentleman  of  this  village,  and,  for  several 
sessions,  a  valuable  member  of  Congress  in  the  Connecticut  dele- 
gation. ?^Iajor  Tallmadge  distinguished  himself  by  a  brilliant  ex- 
ploit against  the  enemy  on  Long  Island,  for  which  he  received  the 
public  approbation  of  General  Washington  ;  and  through  the  w^hole 
struggle,  this  officer  proved  himself  a  favorite  with  the  army  and 
the  officers  under  whom  he  served.  Besides  these,  several  other 
officers  of  elevated  as  well  as  subordinate  rank,  were  attached  to 
the  Continental  armv,  from  this  Countv.  Among  them  were  Col. 
Heman  Swift  of  Cornwall,  ^lajor  Samuel  Elmore  of  Sharon,  Col. 
Seth  Warner  of  Woodbury,  Major  Moses  Seymour  of  Litchfield, 


l6  1  ITCIIFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  1!AR 

Major  John  Webb  of  Canaan,  Capt.  John  Sedgwick  and  Edward 
Rogers  of  Cornwall.  Col.  Blagden  and  Major  Lnther  Stoddard  of 
Salisbury,  and  many  others  not  now  recollected. 

Contributions  in  support  of  the  war  were  not  confined  to  the 
payment  of  heavy  taxes,  but  voluntary  aid  came  from  associations 
and  individuals  in  every  town.  The  jiggregate  can  not  be  com- 
puted.— if  it  could,  it  would  show  an  amount,  which,  rich  as  we 
now  are.  I  think  could  not  be  demanded  of  our  citizens  for  any 
cause  of  patriotism  or  philanthropy  without  murmurs,  and  perhaps, 
resistance. 

-  Nor  was  the  Patriot  spirit  confined  to  men  and  soldiers. — it 
warmed  the  bosoms  of  wives,  mothers  and  sisters,  in  every  town. 
An  equestrian  statue  of  the  King,  of  gilded  lead,  before  the  war, 
had  stood  upon  the  Bowling  Green  in  New  York.  As  soon  as 
the  news  of  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  reach- 
ed New  York,  this  was  missing.  Ere  long  it  was  found  at  the 
dwelling-house  of  Hon.  Oliver  Wolcott,  in  this  village,  and  in 
time  of  need  was  melted  down  into  the  more  appropriate  shape  of 
forty  thousand  bullets,  by  the  daughters  of  that  gentleman  and 
other  ladies,  and  forwarded  to  the  soldiery  in  the  field.  Other  la- 
dies still,  and  in  other  towns,  were  much  employed  in  making 
blankets  and  garments  for  the  suffering  troops. 

I  have  no  means  of  determining  the  number  of  killed  and 
wounded  soldiers  belonging  to  this  County. 

Mr.  Matthews,  the  Mayor  of  the  city  of  New  York,  was  for 
some  time  detained  in  this  village,  a  prisoner  of  war.  and  it  is  said 
that  his  traveling  trunk,  and  some  jjarts  of  his  pleasure  carriage, 
still  remain  in  possession  of  the  Seymour  family.  Governor 
Franklin,  the  Royal  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  and  a  son  of  Dr. 
Benjamin  Franklin,  was  confined  as  a  prisoner  of  war  in  our  jail 
whicli  was  often  used  to  detain  English  prisoners  as  well  as  Tories. 

Although  the  treaty  of  peace  brought  peace  to  other  parts  of 
the  State,  it  did  not  bring  it  to  the  whole  of  tliis  Count}'.  One 
town  was  left. — not  to  the  continued  and  merciless  inroads  of 
British  soldiers  and  savage  Indians,  as  before,  but  to  the  unjust 
oppressions  of  Pennsylvania. — Westmoreland,  better  known  to  the 
readers  of  Indian  tragedy  by  the  name  of  U^yoiiiiiii:^.  Its  history 
is 'one  of  melancholy  interest.  This  territory  is  in  the  valley  and 
region  of  the  Susquehanna  River,  and  included  the  present  flourish- 
ing village  of  \\'ilkesbarrc.  Its  extent  was  as  broad  as  this  State. 
It  was  su]iposed  to  be  embraced  within  (^ur  chartered  limits,  and  such 
was  the  opinion  of  the  most  eminent  counsel  in  England  and  in 
the  Colony.  Under  this  claim,  a  company  associated  about  the 
year  17^4.  by  the  name  of  the  Susquhanna  Company,  and  purchased 
the  Indian  title  to  the  country,  for  two  thousand  pounds.  New  York 
currency.  This  was  a  voluntary  movement. — a  people's  enterprise, 
unsanctioned  by  any  direct  Legislative  act.  but  unforbidden,  and' 
probably  encouraged.     Within   a   few   years,   a   settlement   was  ef- 


CHURCH  S    CENTENNIAL    ADDRESS  1/ 

fected  upon  the  choice  lands  of  the  Susquehanna,  chiefly  by  emi- 
grants from  the  counties  of  Windham  and  Xew  London,  with  sev- 
eral from  this  County,  among  whom  was  John  Franklin  of  Canaan, 
the  brother  of  the  late  Silas  Franklin,  Esq.,  of  that  town,  a  gentle- 
man whose  fortune  and  history  were  closely  interwoven  with  the 
fortunes  of  that  colony.  The  Authorities  of  Pennsylvania,  though 
claiming  under  a  later  Charter,  opposed  this  settlement,  and  kept 
up  a  continual  annoyance  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  with 
England,  and  even  then  sympathized  but  little  with  our  people 
there,  under  the  dreadful  afflictions  which  that  event  brought  upon 
them. 

Sad  indeed  was  the  condition  of  the  colonists  of  Wyoming ! — 
persecuted  by  their  Pennsylvania  neighbors,  and  left  defenceless 
to  the  ravages  of  British  troops  and  their  savage  allies !  The 
Legislature  of  this  Colony  recognized  this  interesting  band  of  its 
own  children,  and  incorporated  them  into  a  township,  by  the  name 
of  Westmoreland,  in  1774,  and  annexed  it  to  the  Count \-  of  Litch- 
field. They  would  have  been  protected  from  the  aggressions  of 
Pennsylvania,  if  the  war  of  the  Revolution  had  not  prevented,  and 
the  good  friends  of  that  Commonwealth  would  have  been  compelled 
to  doff  the  Quaker  a  while,  or  (|uietl\'  to  have  left  our  fellow-citizens 
in  peace,  lender  the  protection  of  their  parent  power,  this  little  col- 
ony now  looked  for  security.  They  were  a  town  of  the  Connecticut 
Colony,  organized  witli  Selectmen  and  other  ordinary  Town  Of- 
ficers, and  semi-annually  sent  their  Deputies  to  the  General  Court 
at  Hartford  and  Xew  Haven ;  chose  their  Jurors  to  attend  the 
Courts  of  this  County,  and  their  Justices  of  the  Peace  were  mag- 
istrates of  the  County  of  Litchfield,  and  all  writs  and  i)rocess. 
served  there,  were  returnable  to  the  Courts  of  this  Countv.  and 
remain  now  upon  our  records.  But  their  securitv  was  transient ; 
the  war  of  the  Revolution  brought  down  upon  tiiem  a  combined 
force  of  British  Provincials  and  Tories,  from  Pennsylvania.  Xew 
Jersey  and  X'^ew  York,  and  a  lartre  bodv  of  Indians,  commanded 
by  Brant,  a  celebrated  chief.  This  whole  force  was  directed  by 
Col.  John  Butler,  of  infamous  memorv. 

I  have  no  leisure  to  describe,  in  its  details,  the  progress  of  the 
tragedy   of   the   \\\voming  massacre.  Cols.    John    Franklin   and 

Zebulon  Butler  were  consnicious  in  their  efforts  to  avert  the  sad 
destiny  of  the  citizens.  It  was  in  vain.  The  battle  opened  on 
the  3d  day  of  July.  1778.  and  it  closed  with  the  entire  destruc- 
tion of  the  settlement.  Men,  women  and  children,  whether  in 
arms  or  defenceless,  were  devoted  to  the  bayonet  and  scalping  knife, 
and  such  as  were  so  fortunate  as  to  escape,  were  driven  awav. 
houseless  and  homeless,  many  of  them  to  be  dragged  from  their 
hiding  places  to  the  slaughter,  and  others  to  escape  after  many 
perils  by  the  way.  That  massacre  was  without  a  likeness  in  modern 
warfare,  and  a  stain  upon  the  English  character,  for  which  English 
historians  have  found  no  apology. 


l8  LITCHFIELD  COUXTV  BENCH  AND  I!AK 

"Accursed   Brant !  he  left  of  all   my  tribe 
Nor  man,  nor  child,  nor  any  thing  of  living  birth  : 
No, — not  the  dog  that  watch'd  my  household  hearth 
Escaped  that   night,   upon  our  plains, — all   perished  !" 

Men,  maidens,  widowed  mothers  and  helpless  infants,  flying- 
from  this  scene  of  death,  are  remembered  by  many  still  living, 
passing  on  foot  and  on  horseback  through  this  County,  back  to 
their  friends  here  and  to  the  eastern  towns.  Such  was  the  fate 
of  a  portion  of  the  citizens  of  our  own  County.  Nine  years  Wy- 
oming had  been  a  part  of  us,  and  after  the  war  was  over,  Penn- 
sylvania renewed  her  claims  and  her  oppressions.  Our  Pilgrim 
fathers  could  recount  no  such  afflictions!  Our  jurisdiction  ceased 
in  1782,  after  a  decision  by  a  Board  of  Commissioners  ;  but  a  great 
portion  of  those  who  had  survived  the  conflict  with  the  Indians, 
gathered  again  around  the  ruins  of  their  former  habitations,  and 
still  refused  submission  to  the  claims  of  Pennsylvania.  Col.  Frank- 
lin was  the  master  spirit  of  resistance,  and  upon  him  fell  the  weight 
of  vengance.  He  was  arrested,  imprisoned,  and  condemed  to  death 
as  a  traitor.  After  a  long  confinement  in  iail,  he  was  at  length 
released,  and  survived  many  years,  and  was  a  respectable  and  in- 
fluential member  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  from 
the  County  of  Luzerne. 

The  result  of  the  compromise  of  our  claim  to  the  town  of  West- 
moreland, was  the  acknowledgment,  by  Congress,  of  the  claim  of 
Connecticut  to  the  Western  Reserve,  from  wliich  has  been  derived 
the  School  Fund  of  the  State. 

The  war  of  the  Revolution  had  ceased,  and  left  us  an  exhausted 
people.  The  extravagant  hopes  of  many  were  disappointed :  they 
felt  the  present  pressure,  but  anticipated  none  of  the  future  prosper- 
itv  and  glorv  in  reserve.  This  disappointment,  in  a  neighboring 
State,  had  produced  open  resistence  to  the  laws, — re]:»ellion  !  It 
was  a  contagious  spirit,  and  such  as  municii^al  lines  could  not  con- 
fine, ^lucii  was  feared  from  it  here.  A  spark  from  that  flame 
in  Berkshire  county  had  flown  over  into  Sharon.  One  Dr.  Hurl- 
but,  an  emissary  of  Shay's,  visited  that  town,  in  the  spring  of  1787, 
to  enlist  men  in  his  cause.  He  made  soiue  impression.  The 
General  Assembly  was  then  in  session,  and  took  efficient  measures 
to  jjrevent  the  spread  of  the  treasonal)le  contagion.  Col.  Samuel 
Canfield,  of  New  ATilford,  and  Uriah  Tracy,  of  this  village,  were 
sent  to  suppress  it.  Several  individuals  were  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned in  the  iail  of  this  County;  but,  as  the  disturbance  in  the 
sister  State  subsided,  the  advocates  of  resistance  to  the  laws  were 
disheartened,  the  prosecutions  were  finally  abandoned,  and  these 
disciples  of  the  treasonable  doctrine  of  resistance  were  oermitted  to 
go  at  large,  punished  enough  b\-  the  contempt  which  followed  them. 

Although  tlie  resources  of  our  citizens  had  been  consumed  by 
a   wastino-   war   and   a   l)ankrui)t    government,   the   elasticity   of   our 


Col.    Samuel  Caxfield. 


church's  cextknnial  address  19 

former  enterprise  was  not  relaxed.  Released,  now,  from  Colonial 
dependence,  and  free  to  act  without  foreign  restrictions,  the  ener- 
gies of  our  citizens  soon  recovered  all  they  had  lost.  A  Consti- 
tution of  Government,  uniting  the  former  Colonies  into  a  great 
nation,  was  proposed  to  the  State  for  adoption ;  and,  in  January, 
1787,  a  convention  of  deligates  from  the  several  towns  met  at 
Hartford  to  consider  it.  The  votes  of  the  deligates  from  this 
County,  upon  this  great  question,  stood,  twenty-two  in  the  affirm- 
ative, and  nine  in  the  negative.  The  negative  votes  were  from 
Cornwall,  Norfolk,  and  Sharon.  Harwinton,  New  Hartford,  and 
Torrington  were  divided. 

No  portion  of  the  country  sooner  revived  under  the  new  im- 
pulse, given  by  the  establishment  of  a  National  Constitutional 
Government,  than  this  County.  Our  resources  were  varied.  Our 
soil  was  every  where  strong  on  the  hills  and  by  the  streams.  \^ar- 
ious  sections  possessed  their  peculiarities  of  production.  Wheat 
was  a  staple  of  the  western  towns.  Dairy  products  were  yielded 
in  abundance  in  the  northern  and  central  regions ;  and.  in  almost 
everv  location,  everv  species  of  grass,  fruit,  and  grain,  indigenous 
to  an\-  northern  latitude,  by  reasonable  culture,  was  found  to  flourish. 
We  were  rich  in  the  most  useful  mineral  in  the  world,  and  our 
streams  of  purest  water  afforded  privileges  every  where  for  con- 
verting our  ores  into  iron  and  our  forests  into  building  materials. 
Rut  we  had  more — that,  without  which,  all  these  were  worthless ; 
we  had  an  industrious,  and  what  was  better,  an  economical  and  an 
intelligent  yeomanrw  We  had  a  few  slaves,  to  be  sure ;  not  enough 
of  these,  nor  enough  of  a  degraded  foreign  population  to  render 
the  toil  of  our  own  hands,  in  the  fields,  or  of  our  wives  or  daughters, 
in  the  kitchen  or  the  dairy,  dishonored  or  disgraceful.  Our  people 
were  Native  Americans!  And  liere  is  the  secret  of  our  prosperity 
and  progress. 

In  1784  the  first  newspaper  press  was  established  in  this  County 
by  Thomas  Collier,  and  was  continued  under  his  superintendence 
for  more  than  twenty  years.  Tt  was  called  the  "Weeklv  ATonitor." 
Tt  was  a  well  conducted  sheet,  and  it  is  refreshing  now.  after  the 
lapse  of  many  years,  to  look  through  its  columns,  as  through  a 
glass,  and  see  the  men  of  other  days,  as  they  have  spoken  and  acted 
on  the  same  ground  on  which  we  stand.  Mr.  Collier  was  an  able 
writer,  and  his  editorial  efforts  would  have  done  honor  to  anv 
journal.  Tt  is  a  Litchfield  monitor  now.  and  whoever  shall  look 
over  its  files  will  see,  at  a  glance,  the  great  changes  which  have  been 
introduced,  in  later  days,  into  all  the  departments  of  business  and  of 
social  and  political  life. 

Then,  the  intercourse  between  the  several  towns  in  this  County 
and  the  market  towns  was  slow  and  difficult.  The  Country  mer- 
chants were  the  great  brokers,  and  stood  between  the  farmer  and 
the  markets.  Thev  received  all  his  produce  and  supplied  all  he 
wished  to  buv.       The  thriftv   farmer,  on   settlement,   received  his 


20  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

annual  balance  from  the  merchant.  This  enabled  him  to  increase 
his  acres.  He  did  not  invest  it  in  stocks  ;  of  these  he  knew  nothing, 
except  such  as  he  had  seen  attached  as  instruments  of  punishment,  to 
the  whipping  post  in  every  town. 

The  merchants,  thus  employed,  almost  all  became  wealthy. 
A  broken  merchant  in  the  County  was  seldom  heard  of.  Among 
the  most  successful  and  respectable  of  these  gentlemen,  whom  I 
now  recollect,  were  Julius  Deming  and  Benjamin  Tallmadge,  of 
this  town ;  Tallmadge,  of  Warren ;  Bacon,  of  Woodbury ;  Lea- 
vitts',  of  Bethlem  and  Washington ;  Starr.  Norton,  and  Lynians', 
of  Goshen ;  Battel,  of  Norfolk ;  King,  of  Sharon  ;  HoUey,  of  Salis- 
bury, and  Elijah  Boardman,  of  New  Milford,  afterwards  a  highly 
respectable  Senator  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  At 
that  time,  Derby  was  the  chief  market  town  for  many  of  the  mer- 
chants in  the  southern  towns  of  the  County. 

The  age  of  Turnpike  Roads  commenced  about  the  year  1800, 
and  no  portion  of  the  country  was  more  improved  by  them  than 
this  County.  Before  this,  a  journey  through  the  Green  Woods 
was  spoken  of  as  an  exploit. — a  region  now  accommodated  by  the 
most  pleasant  road  in  the  County.  The  roads  constructed  about 
the  same  time,  from  New  Haven  to  Canaan,  from  Sharon  to  Goshen, 
and  from  Litchfield  to  Hartford,  changed  very  much  the  aspect  of 
the  County  and  its  current  of  business,  and  if  they  have  not  been 
profitable  to  stockholders,  thev  have  been  invaluable  to  the  people. 

The  spur  given  to  agriculture  by  the  wars  following  the  French 
Revolution  was  felt  in  every  thing.  If  our  farmers  have  failed 
in  anv  thing,  it  has  been  in  a  proper  appreciation  of  their  own  calling. 
Thev  have  vielded  a  preference  to  other  employments,  to  which  they 
are  not  entitled.  Tf  we  are  to  have  an  Aristocracy  in  this  country, 
I  say,  let  the  farmers  and  business  men.  and  not  our  idlers,  be  our 
Princes! — not  such  as  are  ashamed  of  their  employments  and  with- 
draw their  sons  from  the  field  and  their  daughters  from  domestic 
labor.  T  would  have  no  such  to  rule  over  me.  But,  in  spite  of 
some  such  false  notions,  agriculture  has  kept  pace  even  with  other 
branches  of  industry  in  the  Countv,  as  the  appearance  of  our  farms 
and  the  thrift  of  our  farmers  attest.  Much  of  this  may  be  attributed 
to  an  Agricultural  Society,  which  was  formed  here  several  years 
ago.  and  has  been  well  sustained  until  this  time. 

1  have  alluded  to  the  condition  of  manufactures  as  it  was  before 
the  Revolution — limited  to  iron  and  confined  to  the  furnace  in  Salis- 
bury and  a  few  forges  in  that  vicinit\  :  to  which  mav  be  added,  the 
manufacture  of  maple  sugar,  to  some  extent  by  the  farmers  in  some 
of  the  towns. 

Even  a  few  vears  ago,  this  Count}  was  not  believed  to  be  destined 
to  become  a  manufacturing  comnumitw  During  the  Revolutionary 
War,  Samuel  Forbes,  Esq..  commenced  a  most  inu:)ortant  experi- 
ment in  Canaan — the  manufacture  of  nail  rods.  Before  this,  nails 
were  hammered  out  from  the  bar  iron — a  slow  and  expensive  process. 


CHURCH  S    CKXTEXNIAL    ADDRESS  21 

Tlierc  was  a  slitting-mill  in  Xew  Jersey,  in  which  nail  rods  were 
made,  but  the  machiner_\-  was  kept  hidden  from  pubhc  inspection. 
Forbes  wished  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  it.  and  for  this  purpose 
employed  an  ingenious  mechanic  and  millwright,  Isaac  Benton,  of 
Salislmrw  Benton,  disguised  as  a  traveling  mendicant,  obtained 
admission  to  the  mill,  and  so  critically,  and  without  suspicion, 
marked  the  machinery  and  its  operation,  as  to  be  able  immediately 
to  make  such  a  model  of  it  as  to  construct  a  mill,  of  the  same  sort, 
for  Forbes.  This  was  the  fixmdation  of  his  great  fortune  in  after 
life.  He  afterwards  erected  another  slitting-mill  in  Washington, 
(now  Woodville. )  By  these  he  was  able  to  suppl\  the  great  de- 
mand for  this  article.  This  was  a  great  improvement  upon  the 
former  mode  of  nail-making,  but  was  itself  superseded,  some  years 
afterwards,  by  the  introduction  of  cut  nail  machinery.  Esquire 
Forbes,  as  he  was  afterwards  familiarly  called  by  every  body,  may 
justlv  l)e  deemed  the  pioneer  of  the  manufacturing  interests  in  this 
Countv.  His  efforts  were  confined,  generally,  to  the  working  of 
iron.  His  forge  he  extended,  and  accommodated  to  the  manufactur- 
ing of  anchors,  screws,  and  mill  irons.  He  introduced  this  branch 
of  the  iron  business  into  this  County,  if  not  into  the  State.  It  was 
not  long  after  followed  by  those  enter])rising  manufacturers.  Russell 
Hunt  ct'  I'rothers.  at  South  Canaan,  by  whom  the  largest  anchors 
for  the  largest  ships  of  the  American  Xavy  were  made. 

The  manufacture  of  scythes  by  water-power,  was  commenced 
in  this  County  first  at  \Mnsted.  by  Jenkins  &  Boyd,  in  1794.  These 
enterprising  gentlemen,  with  the  brothers  Rockwell,  soon  extensive- 
Iv  engaged  in  various  branches  of  the  manufacture  of  iron  and  steel 
in  Winsted  and  that  vicinitw  from  which  originated,  and  has  grown 
up  to  its  present  condition,  one  of  the  most  flourishing  manufactur- 
ing villages  in  the  State. 

The  furnace,  in  Salisljury.  continued  for  many  years  in  most 
successful  o])eration  under  its  active  proprietors,  and  es]x^cially 
its  last  owners.  ]\Iessrs.  Holley  cS:  Coffing,  by  whose  energy  and 
success,  the  iron  interest,  in  Salisbury,  has  been  most  essentially 
jiromoted :  and  it  has  extended  into  the  towns  of  Canaan,  Corn- 
wall Sharon,  and  Kent.  Ames'  works,  at  Falls  \'illage.  are  not 
equalled  by  any  other  in  the  State. 

In  speaking  of  the  iron  interest.  T  cannot  but  allude  again  to 
the  Salisbury  iron  ore,  which  is  found  in  various  localities  in  that 
town.  It  stands  superior  to  an\-  other  for  the  tenacity  of  the  iron 
which  it  produces,  with  which  the  armories  of  Si)ringfield  and 
Harper's  Ferrv  are  supplied,  and  froiu  which  the  chain  cal^les  and 
best  anchors  for  the  Xavy  are  made.  And  I  am  confident,  if  the 
machinery  of  the  steam  vessels  and  railroad  cars  were  made  ex- 
clusivelv  from  this  iron,  and  not  from  a  cheaper  and  inferior  ma- 
terial, we  should  know  less  of  broken  shafts  and  loss  of  life  in  our 
public  conveyances. 

Paper  was  first  made  in  this  County,  at  the  great  Falls  of  the 


22  LITCHFIELD  COUXTV  BLNCH  AND  BAR 

Housatonic,  in  Salisbury,  by  Adam  c^'  Church,  as  early  as  1787, 
and  soon  after  in  Litchfield.  The  first  carding-machine  erected, 
I  think,  in  this  State,  was  built  at  the  great  falls  in  Canaan,  about 
1802.  Previous  to  this  time,  wool  was  carded  only  by  females,  at 
their  own  firesides. 

A  general  manufacturing  policy  was  suggested  by  the  measures 
of  government,  and  not  long  after  a  more  extensive  experiment 
was  made  in  the  manufacture  of  woolen  cloths  by  the  late  Gov. 
Wolcott,  and  his  brother  Hon.  Frederick  Wolcott  of  this  place, 
than  had  been  made  in  this  County  before ;  and  although  the  trial 
was  disastrous  to  its  projectors,  it  was  the  parent  of  the  subse- 
quent and  present  prosperity  of  the  village  of  Wolcottville. 

The  same  policy  has  spread  into  almost  every  town  in  the 
County,  and  has  not  only  extended  the  manufacture  of  iron,  from 
a  mouse  trap  to  a  ship's  anchor,  but  has  introduced,  and  is  intro- 
ducing, all  the  various  branches  of  manufactures  pursued  in  thi.= 
country  ;  and  of  late,  the  elegant  manufacture  of  the  Papier  Alache. 
Plymouth,  New  Hartford,  Norfolk,  Woodbury,  as  well  as  the 
towns  before  mentioned,  have  felt  extensively  the  beneficial  efifects 
of  this  modern  industrial  progress,  so  that  our  County  may  now 
be  set  down  as  one  of  the  first  manufacturing  Counties  in  the 
State ;  and  this  confirms  what  I  have  said,  that  here  are  all  the 
varied  facilities  of  profitable  employment,  which  can  be  found  in 
any  section  or  region  o  fthis  country.  ( )ur  voung  men  need  no 
longer  seek  adventure  and  fortune  elsewhere !  Neither  the  desire 
of  wealth,  nor  the  preservation  of  health  and  life,  should  suggest 
emigration. 

As  soon  as  the  war  was  over,  and  the  Indians  subdued  into 
peace,  our  ])eople  rushed  again  to  A'ermont,  and  to  the  W'hites- 
town  and  Genesee  countries,  as  the\'  were  called ;  so  that,  in  a  few 
years,  let  a  Litchfield  County  man  go  where  he  would,  between  the 
top  of  the  Green  Mountains  and  Lake  ChamplaiiL  or  between  Utica 
and  the  Lakes,  and  every  day  he  would  greet  an  acquaintance  or 
citizen  from  his  own  County. 

And  then  followed  the  sale  and  occu]iati(^n  of  the  Connecticut 
Western  Reserve.  Many  of  its  original  proprietors  were  our  citi- 
zens :  and  among  them,  Messrs.  Boardman,  of  New  Milford  :  Holmes, 
Tallmadge,  and  Wadsworth,  of  Litchfield ;  Srarr  and  Norton,  of 
Goshen  ;  Canficld,  of  Sharon ;  Johnston.  Church,  and  \\'aterman, 
of  Salisbury.  For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  de]:)opulation  was  to  fol- 
low. The  towns  of  Boardman,  Canficld,  Tallmadge,  Johnson,  Hud- 
son, and  several  others  on  the  reserve,  were  soon  filling  up  with 
the  best  blood  and  spirit  of  our  County  :  and  since  then,  we  have 
been  increasing  the  population  of  other  ])arts  of  the  States  of  New 
York  and  Ohio,  as  well  as  of  Michigan,  Illinois,  and  Indiana,  so 
that  now  there  is  not  one  of  us  who  remain,  who  has  not  a  parent, 
a  brother,  or  a  child,  in  New  York,  A^crmont,  or  the  States  of  the 
West.      And  we  believe  that  these  children  of  our  own  raising,  have 


CHURCH  S    CKXTKXXIAI,    ADDRESS  23 

transniittc(l  the  impress  and  image  of  Litchfield  County,  to  the  gen- 
eral condition  of  societ}'  where  they  have  gone,  and  that  they  have 
fixed  there  a  moral  likeness  which  proves  its  parentage.  This  em- 
igrating propensity  has  characterized  the  Saxon  race  in  all  times 
of  its  history  ;  and  it  is  still  at  work,  scattering  us  into  every  corner 
and  climate,  and  away  to  dig  for  gold  and  graves  in  the  barrens  of 
California  !  Notwithstanding  this  exhausting  process  of  emigration, 
our  population  which,  in  the  year  1800.  was  41,671,  has  increased 
to  the  number  of  46,171. 

1  do  not  know  that  before  the  Revolution  there  was  a  public 
Grammar  School  in  the  County.  The  preparatory  studies  of  young 
men,  intended  for  collegiate  course,  were  prosecuted  with  |)rivate 
instructors — generally,  the  Clergy;  and  this  course  was  pursued 
still  later. 

Among  the  clergymen  of  the  County  most  distinguished  as  in- 
structors, and  in  fitting  young  men  for  college,  as  it  was  called, 
were  Rev.  Daniel  Farrand.  of  Canaan,  Ammi  R.  Robbins,  of  Nor- 
folk, Judah  Champion,  of  Litchfield,  and  Azel  Backus,  D.  D.,  of 
Bethlem.  This  last  named  gentleman  was  afterwards  President 
of  Hamilton  College. 

Soon  after  the  war,  .Academies  were  instituted,  and  among  the 
first  and  best  of  them  was  the  Morris  Academy  in  the  parish  of 
South  Farms,  in  this  town,  which  was  commenced  in  1790,  by 
James  Morris,  Esq.  Esquire  Morris  was  no  ordinary  man.  He 
was  a  distinguished  graduate  of  Yale  College,  and  an  active  officer 
in  the  Revolutionary  Army.  His  learning  was  varied  and  practical, 
and  under  his  direction  the  Morris  Academy  became  the  most  noted 
public  school  of  the  County,  and  so  continued  for  many  }ears. 
An  Academy  at  Sharon,  not  long  after,  acquired  a  deserved  repu- 
tation, under  such  instructors  as  John  T.  Peters,  Elisha  Sterling, 
and  Barzillai  Slosson.  Alanx-  vears  afterwards  an  Academy  was 
conducted  in  Ellsworth  Society,  in  the  same  town,  under  the  super- 
intendence of  Rev.  Daniel  Parker,  which  soon  attained  a  high 
reputation. 

Our  relative  position  in  the  State,  and  the  controlling  influence 
of  the  cities,  have  left  us  without  College.  Asylum,  or  Retreats ; 
but  our  district  schools  have  been  doing  their  proper  work,  so  that 
Judae  Reeve  remarked  while  alive,  that  he  had  never  seen  but  one 
witness  in  Court,  born  in  this  County,  who  could  not  read.  And 
these  schools  have  not  only  made  scholars,  but  scliool-mastcrs.  and 
these  have  been  among  the  best  of  our  indigenous  productions,  and 
have  found  a  good  market  every  where.  \\'hen  Congress  sat  in 
Philadelphia,  a  Litchfield  County  man  was  seen  driving  a  drove 
of  mules  through  the  streets.  A  North  Carolina  member  congratu- 
lated the  late  Air.  Tracy  upon  seeing  so  many  of  his  constituents  that 
morning,  and  enquired  where  they  were  going,  to  which  he  facetious- 
ly replied,  that  they  were  going  to  North  Carolina  to  keep  school 


24  UTCHFIELD  COUNTY   BEXCII  AXD  BAR 

A  new  tone  to  female  education  was  given  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Female  Seminary,  for  the  instruction  of  females  in 
this  village,  by  Miss  Sarah  Pierce,  in  1792.  This  was  an  un- 
tried ex])eriment.  Hitherto  the  education  of  young  ladies,  with 
few  exceptions,  had  been  neglected.  The  district  school  had  limit- 
ed their  course  of  studies.  Miss  Pierce  saw  and  regretted  this, 
and  devoted  herself  and  all  of  her  active  life  to  the  mental  and 
moral  culture  of  her  sex.  The  experiment  succeeded  entirely. 
This  Acedeni}-  soon  became  the  resort  of  young  ladies  from  all 
portions  of  the  country — from  the  cities  and  the  towns.  Then, 
the  country  was  preferred,  as  most  suitable  for  female  improve- 
ment, away  from  the  frivolities  and  dissipation  of  fashionable  life. 
Now,  a  different,  not  a  better  practice,  prevails.  ]\Iany  of  the 
grandmothers  and  mothers  of  the  present  generation  were  educated 
as  well  for  gentcl  as  for  useful  life,  in  this  school,  and  its  influence 
upon  female  character  and  accomplishments  was  great  and  extensive. 
It  continued  for  more  than  forty  years,  and  its  venerable  Principal 
and  her  sister  assistant  now  live  among  us,  the  honored  and  honor- 
able of  their  sex. 

I)efore  this,  and  as  early  as  1784,  a  Law  School  was  instituted 
in  this  village.  Tap]Mng  Reeve,  then  a  young  lawyer  from  Long 
Island,  who  had  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  here, 
was  its  projector.  It  is  not  known  whether  in  this  country,  or  any 
where,  except  at  the  Inns  of  Court  at  \A'estminster,  a  school  for 
the  training  of  lawyers  had  been  attempted.  Xo  Professorships 
of  Law  had  been  introduced  into  American  Colleges ;  nor  was  the 
Law  treated  as  a  liberal  science. 

Before  this,  the  law  student  served  a  short  clerkship  in  an  at- 
tornev's  office, — studied  some  forms  and  little  substance,  and  had 
within  his  reach  but  few  volumes  beyond  Coke's  &  \\'oo(rs  Insti- 
tutes. Plackstone's  Commentaries,  Bacon's  Abridgment,  and  Jacob's 
Law  Dictionarw  and,  when  admitted  to  the  lUir,  was  better  instruct- 
ed in  ])leas  in  abatement,  than  in  the  weightier  matters  of  the  Law. 
Before  this,  too,  the  Common  Law,  as  a  system,  was  imperfectly 
understood  here  and  in  oiu'  sister  States.  Few  lawyers  ha.d  master- 
ed it.  The  reputation  of  this  institution  soon  became  as  extensive 
as  the  country,  and  young  men  from  Maine  to  Georgia  sought  to 
finish  their  law  studies  here. 

Judge  Reeve  conducted  this  school  alone,  from  its  commence- 
ment until  1798,  when,  having  been  appointed  to  the  Bench  of  the 
Sui)erior  Court,  he  associated  with  him.  as  an  instructor.  James 
Oould.  Fs(|.  These  gentlemen  conducted  the  school  together  for 
several  vears,  until  the  advanced  age  of  Judge  Reeve  admonished 
him  to  retire  ;  after  which.  Judge  Gould  contijiued  the  school  alone 
until  a  few  years  before  his  death.  It  may  be  said  of  Judge  Reeve, 
that  he  first  gave  the  Law  a  place  among  liberal  studies  in  this 
countrv. — that  "he  found  it  a  skeleton,  and  clothed  it  with  life, 
color,  and  complexion."     This  school  gave  a  new  impulse  to  legal 


CnrKCIl's     CKXTEXXIAL     ADDRESS  2^ 

learninjT   and    it    was    felt    in   the   Jurisprudence   as    well   as   in   the 
Legislation  of  all  the  States. 

A  new  subject  of  study,  not  known  in  any  other  country,  had 
been  presented  to  the  legal  student  here, — the  Constitution  of  the 
L'nited  States  and  the  Legislation  of  Congress.  Uniformity  of  in- 
terpretation was  indispensable. 

At  this  institution  students  from  every  State  drank  from  the 
same  fountain,  were  taught  the  same  principles  of  the  Common 
and  Constitutional  Law  :  and  these  principles,  with  the  same  modes 
of  leg-al  thinking  and  feeling  and  of  administration  were  dissemin- 
ated throughout  the  entire  country.  More  than  one  thousand 
lawyers  of  the  I'nited  States  were  educated  here,  and  many  of 
them  afterwards  among  the  most  eminent  Jurists  and  Legislators. 
Even  after  Judge  Gould's  connection  with  the  school,  an  inspection 
of  the  catalogue  will  show,  that  from  it  have  gone  out  among  the 
States  of  this  Union,  a  \'ice  President  of  the  United  States,  two 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  L^nited  States,  forty  Judges 
of  the  highest  State  Courts,  thirteen  Senators,  and  forty-six  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress,  besides  several  Cabinet  and  Foreign  Min- 
isters. 

I  have  said  that  this  school  gave  a  new  impulse  to  legal  learn- 
ing in  this  country.  Soon  after  its  establishment,  and  not  before, 
reports  of  judicial  decisions  appeared.  Ephraim  Kirby,  Esq  an 
able  lawyer  of  this  village,  ])ublished  the  first  volimie  of  Reports 
of  Adiudged  Cases,  in  this  country, — a  volume  which  deserved 
and  received  the  approbation  of  the  profession  here  and  elsewhere. 
This  was  soon  follow^ed  by  Reports  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York. 

Standing  at  this  point  of  time,  and  looking  back  over  the  events 
of  an  hundred  years,  we  would  recall,  not  only  the  scenes  which 
have  transjMred,  but  revive  our  recollections  of  the  men  who  have 
acted  in  them.  Memory  cannot  raise  the  dead  to  life  again  :  yet 
it  ma\  bring  back  something  of  their  presence, — shaded  and  dim, 
but  almost  real ; — and  through  the  records  of  their  times  we  may 
hear  them  speak  again.  To  some  of  these  I  have  made  allusion.  I 
would  speak  of  others. 

The  allusion  to  the  Law  School  of  the  County  suggests  to  me 
a  l:)rief  notice,  also,  of  the  legal  jirofession  here,  and  of  its  most 
distinguished  members,  as  well  as  a  further  allusion  to  others  of 
the  sons  of  Litchfield  County,  distinguished  in  other  professions 
and  employments  of  life.  Tn  si^eaking  of  these  I  must  confine 
myself  to  the  memor\-  of  the  dead.  And  here.  T  feel  that  T  am 
under  a  restraint,  which,  on  any  other  occasion.  I  would  resist.  I 
feel  this  chain  which  binds  me  the  more  as  T  look  around  on  this 
gathering  and  see  some  here,  and  am  reminded  of  others — so  many, 
who  have  contributed  by  splendid  talents  and  moral  worth,  to  make 
our  name  a  j^raise  in  the  land.  As  the  reoresentative  of  the  County. 
T  would  most  gladlv  do  them  livin<T  homage  before  you  all.  T  re- 
gret that  T  have  h^d   so  brief  an   opnortimity  to  make  this  notice 


26  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BKXCII  AND  BAR 

as  perfect  as  it  shoukl  be. — a   favorite  theme,  if  I  could  but  do  it 
justice. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  learn  much  of  the  Lawyers  who  practiced 
in  this  territory  before  the  organization  of  the  County  in  1751- 
Samuel  Pettibone.  Esq.,  of  Goshen,  and  Reynold  Marvin,  Esq.,  of 
Litchfield,  (a  native  of  Lyme,)  are  all  of  whom  I  can  speak. 

Mr.  Pettibone  lived  to  a  great  age  and  died  in  reduced  circum- 
stances, in  1787.  Mr.  Marvin  was  respectable  in  his  profession, 
and  was  King's  Attornev  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  His  resi- 
dence  was  at  the  dwelling  of  Dr.  William  Buel,  in  this  village. 

Among  the  Lawyers  of  the  new  County  who  appeared  in  its 
Courts,  were  Mr.  Thatcher,  of  New  Milford.  Hezekiah  Thompson 
and  Edward  Hinman.  of  Woodbury,  Mr.  Humphrey,  of  Norfolk, 
John  Canfield.  of  Sharon.  Andrew  Adams,  of  Litchfield,  Mr.  Catlin. 
of  Harwinton,  and  Joshua  Whitney,  of  Canaan.  Of  these.  Messrs. 
Canfield  and  Adams  became  distinguished  at  the  Bar  and  in  public 
life.  Mr.  Canfield  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Canfield,  of  New  Mil- 
ford,  one  of  the  Associate  Judges  of  the  County.  He  was  a])point- 
ed  a  member  of  Congress  under  the  Confederation,  but  died  before 
he  took  his  seat.  We  can  appreciate  his  character  when  informed 
that  he  was  the  chosen  colleague  of  Johnson,  Ellsworth,  and  Trum- 
bull. Mr.  Adams  succeeded  Mr.  Marvin  as  State's  .-\ttorney.  He 
was  esteemed  an  eloquent  advocate,  and  his  reputation  at  the  Bar 
was  distinguished.  He  was  well  versed  in  theological  studies,  and 
in  the  absence  of  his  minister,  often  officiated  in  the  pulpit.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  and  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, became  an  Associate,  and  then  Chief  Justice  of  the  Superior 
Court. 

Before  the  Revolution  there  were  but  few  eminent  lawyers  in 
the  County,  and  professional  gentlemen  from  abroad  attended  our 
courts  and  were  employed  in  the  most  important  causes.  Among 
these  were  Thomas  Seymour.  Es(|.,  of  Hartford,  and  Hon.  Samuel 
W.  Johnson,  of  Stratford,  then  standing  at  the  head  of  the  Con- 
necticut Bar.  A  colonial  condition  was.  as  it  ever  will  be,  un- 
favorable to  the  development  of  forensic  talent. 

The  change  in  the  state  of  this  Bar,  after  the  War.  and  especi- 
allv  after  the  settlement  of  the  government,  was  sudden  and  great; 
and,  within  a  few  years  after  this  event,  no  Count \-  in  the  State 
and  but  few  in  other  States,  could  boast  of  a  Bar  more  distinguished 
for  legal  talent  and  high  profession  and  moral  excellence,  than  this. 
Reeve.  Tracy,  Allen,  Kirby,  Strong  of  Salisbury,  Smith  of  W^ood- 
bury.  Smith  and  Canfield,  of  Sharon,  are  names  which  revive  proud 
recollections  among  the  old  men  of  the  County.  And  while  these 
gentlemen  stood  before  our  courts  there  came  to  their  company  a 
vouneer  band,  destined,  with  theuL  to  perpetuate  the  high  stand- 
ing of  the  profession  here  ; — Gould.  Sterling,  of  Salisbury  :  Benedict. 
Rue:2:les,     r.oanlman.     Smith,    of    Litchfield;    Slosson,     Southma\-d, 


CHURCH  S    CENTENNIAL    ADDRESS  27 

Swan,  Pettibone,  and  afterward.  Miner,  Williams,  Bacon,  and 
others. 

Tapping  Reeve  was  a  native  of  Long  Island,  and  a  distinguished 
gradute  of  Nassau  Hall,  New  Jersey,  and  a  tutor  in  that  college. 
He  commenced  practice  here  in  1783,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
learned  lawyers  of  the  day  in  which  he  lived.  He  loved  the  law 
as  a  science,  and  studied  it  philosophically.  He  considered  it  as 
the  ])ractical  application  of  religious  principle  to  the  business  affairs 
of  life.  He  wished  to  reduce  it  to  a  certain,  symmetrical  system 
of  moral  truth.  He  did  not  trust  to  the  inspiration  of  genius  for 
eminence,  but  to  the  results  of  profound  and  constant  study,  and 
was  never  allured  by  political  ambition.  I  seem,  even  now.  to  see 
his  calm  and  placid  countenance  shining  through  his  abundant 
locks,  as  he  sat,  poring  over  his  notes  in  the  lecture  room,  and  to 
hear  his  shrill  whisper,  as  he  stood  when  giving  his  charge  to  the 
iur\ .  He  was  elevated  to  the  Rench  of  the  Superior  Court  in  1798, 
an(i  to  the  office  of  Chief  Justice  in  1804,  and  retired  from  public 
life  at  the  age  of  seventy  \ears  and  died  in  1827.  He  pulilished  a 
vahialdc  treatise  on  Domestic  Relations,  and  another  on  the  Law 
of  Descents. 

Gen.  Triah  Tracy  was  a  native  of  Xorwich.  and  one  of  the 
first  of  the  pupils  of  Judge  Reeve.  As  a  itu-\-  advocate  he  obtained 
a  high  distinction.  His  wit  was  pungent  and  his  powers  of  oratory 
imcommon.  He  was  a  i)olitician.  often  a  member  of  our  own  Legis- 
lature :  for  several  years  a  memlu'r  of  Concfress.  and  he  died  in  1807, 
while  a  member  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  in  which  body 
he  was  eminently  distinguished. 

Col.  Adonijah  Strong,  tlie  father  of  the  late  Hon.  Martin 
Strong,  was  unique  in  genius  and  manner,  of  large  professional 
business,  sound  practical  sense,  and  many  anecdotes  of  his  say- 
ings and  doings  are  still   remembered  and  repeated  in  the  County. 

Hon.  Nathaniel  Smith,  of  Woodbury,  a  native  of  Washington, 
commenced  life  under  discouraging  circumstances.  He  had  neither 
fortune  nor  the  ]M-os]:)ect  of  any,  nor  early  education,  to  stimulate 
him.  Like  man\-  other  New  England  boys,  he  fought  his  way  to 
eminence  :  and  eminent  he  was  ;  and  T  cannot  tell  by  what  process 
he  became  so.  He.  too,  was  one  of  the  early  members  of  the  Law 
School  here.  He  was  not  a  man  of  many  books.  He  seemed  to 
understand  the  law.  as  did  ^Tansfield  and  ^Marshall,  by  intuition, 
and  to  have  acquired  the  power  of  language  by  insoiration.  His  was 
a  native  elof|uence  yet  chaste,  and  ''when  unadorned,  adorned  the 
most."  T  think  he  was  one  of  the  most  nrofound  lawyers  and  judges 
of  this  C(^untr\-.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Council,  a  member  of 
Congress,  and  was  elevated  tr>  the  Lench  of  the  Suoerior  Court  in 
1806. 

Hon.  Nathan  Smith  was  a  vonnger  brother  of  Nathaniel  Smith, 
and  though  born  and  reared  in  this   County,  his  professional  and 


~8  l.nCHFlKlJ)    COUNTY    BENCH    AND    BAR. 

public  life  was  passed  in  Xew  Haven  Conntw  but  he  often  appeared 
at  this  I'>ar.  He  was  less  profound  than  his  brother,  more  ardent, 
and  i)erhaps  more  effective  as  a  jury  lawyer.  He  died,  while  a 
Senator  in  Congress,  in  1835. 

Hon.  John  Allen  was  a  native  of  Massachusetts  and  instructed 
by  Mr.  Reeve,  and  for  several  years  held  a  commanding  position 
at  this  Bar. 

Hon.  John  Cotton  Smith,  of  Sharon,  was  the  son  of  Rev.  Cotton 
Mather  Smith,  of  that  town.  A  graduate  of  Yale  College  and  of 
the  Litchfield  Law  School,  he  soon  took  a  prominent  place  by  the 
side  of  Tracy  and  Nathaniel  Smith  at  the  Bar  of  the  County.  He 
was  known  as  a  fluent  speaker,  and  of  easy  and  graceful  address ; 
he  became  a  popular  advocate.  For  several  sessions  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  State  he  was  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
In  Congress  he  sustained  an  enviable  reputation  as  a  presiding  offi- 
cer. Upon  retiring  from  Congress  he  was  soon  placed  upon  the 
Bench  of  the  Superior  Court,  from  which  he  was  promoted  to  the 
office  of  Governor  of  the  State.  From  this  he  retired,  and  from 
public  life,  in  181 7.  The  remainder  of  his  life  was  spent  in  doing 
good,  either  as  President  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  or  in  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  a  virtuous  citizen  in  his  native  town,  until 
his  death  in  1845. 

Hon.  James  Gould  was  a  native  of  Branford,  a  graduate  and 
a  tutor  of  Yale  College.  He  pursued  his  professional  studies  with 
Judge  Reeve,  and,  soon  after  coming  to  the  Bar  of  this  County, 
he  became  associated  with  him  as  an  instructor  of  the  Law  School. 
Judge  Gould  was  a  critical  scholar,  and  alwa^■s  read  with  his  pen 
in  his  hand,  whether  Law  book  or  books  of  fiction  or  fancy,  for 
which  he  indulged  a  passion.  In  the  more  abstruse  subjects  of  the 
law,  he  was  more  learned  than  Judge  Reeve,  and.  as  a  lecturer,  more 
lucid  and  methodical.  The  Common  Law  he  had  searched  to  the 
bottom,  and  he  knew  it  all — its  principles,  and  the  reasons  from 
which  they  were  drawn.  As  an  advocate,  he  was  not  a  man  of 
impassioned  eloquence,  but  clear  and  logical,  employing  language 
elegant  and  chaste.  He  indulged  in  no  wit,  and  seldom  excited  a 
laugh,  but  was  very  sure  to  carrv  a  listener  along  w^ith  him  to  his 
conclusions.  \\'ith  his  brethren,  his  intercourse  was  always  courte- 
ous, and  with  his  younger  ones,  kind  and  affectionate.  He  never 
gave  offense.  In  his  arguments,  he  resorted  to  no  artifice,  but  met 
the  difficulties  in  his  way  fully  in  the  face,  and  if  he  could  not  over- 
come them  he  vielded  without  irritation.  He  was  appointed  an 
.Associate  Judge  of  the  Superior  Coiu't  in  1816.  and  retired  from  the 
Bench  to  private  life  soon  after.  Judge  Gould  i>ublished  an  able 
treatise  on  the  Law  of  Pleading,  in  which  he  was  governed  by  the 
truth  of  Lord  Coke's  saying,  "he  knoweth  not  the  law.  who 
knoweth  not  the  reason  thereof."  His  volume  has  received  flat- 
tering approval  from  the  most  learned  Jurists  in  this  country  and 
Kngland.     Judge  Gould  died  in  1838. 


,'>ji<'*as< 


-ih 


/m 


$■ 


/'/ 


Juiix   CdiiiiN    S\irrii. 
From  Cravon  Sketch.  1800. 


church's    CENTEX X I AL    ADDRESS  29 

Noah  R.  Benedict  was  the  son  of  Rev.  Noah  Benedict,  of 
Woodbury,  a  gentleman  of  no  precocity  of  intellect  or  genius,  and 
his  first  appearance  at  the  Bar  did  not  promise  the  eminence  which 
he  afterwards  acquired.  He  studied,  and  the  Law  was  the  chief 
subject  of  his  study.  He  aspired  to  no  higher  place  than  distinc- 
tion in  his  profession.  He  engaged  in  none  of  the  ordinary  busi- 
ness transactions  of  society,  and,  as  he  once  told  me,  he  never  gave 
a  ])roniissorv  note  in  his  life.  With  such  an  undivided  attention 
to  his  professional  calling,  it  was  not  strange  that  he  should  reach 
a  high  place  at  the  Bar.  And  he  did  reach  it,  and,  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  no  man  here  stood  before  him.  His  example  should  be 
a  choice  model  for  voung  lawyers. 

(jcn.  Klisha  Sterling,  of  Salisbury,  was  a  native  of  Lyme.  N^o 
one  in  our  profession  was  more  assiduous  in  its  i:)ractice  than  this 
gentleman.  His  causes  were  never  neglected  in  their  prepara- 
tion. The  controlling  points  of  every  case  he  discovered  (juick, 
and  pressed  both,  in  i)reparation  and  argument,  with  zeal.  He 
neglected  the  study  of  method  and  system  in  his  arguments,  but, 
when  concluded,  nothing  had  been  omitted. 

Passing  1)y,  on  this  hurried  occasion,  a  more  particular  notice 
of  the  galaxy  of  Lawyers,  to  whom  I  have  alluded.  I  may  be  in- 
dulged in  paying  an  affectionate  tribute  to  one  or  two,  whose  familiar 
voices  still  seem  sounding  in  oin-  Com-t  House. 

Hon.  Jabez  W.  Huntington  earned  his  high  nrofessiona'  char- 
acter here,  where  he  commenced  and  continued  his  practice  for 
several  years.  He  engaged  in  ])ublic  life,  and  returned  to  hi?  na- 
tive town  of  Xorwich.  He  was  elected  to  Congress:  afterwards 
he  was  elevated  to  the  Bench  of  the  Superior  Court,  which  place 
he  retnined  until  he  was  api)ointed  a  Senator  in  Congress,  in  which 
positi'-n  he  died  in  1847.  Having  been  associated  with  Tudge 
Huntington  at  the  Bar  and  on  the  Bench.  T  can  bear  true  testimony 
to  his  superior  abilities  in  both  jilaces. 

Of  m\-  late  brother.  Leman  Church  Es(|.,  the  proprieties  of  mv 
connection  will  not  permit  me  to  sneak.  The  deep  sensation  pro- 
duced at  this  Bar.  and  the  grief  which  tore  the  hearts  of  his  num- 
erous friends,  when  he  died,  is  the  only  eulogy  upon  his  life  and 
character  to  which  T  may  refer. 

T  hafl  a  young  friend,  m~)on  whose  opening  prospects  T  looked 
with  anxiety  and  hope.  He  was  of  generous  heart  and  liberal 
hand  and  stinmlated  b\  an  honorable  ambition,  which  seemed 
nearl\-  at  the  point  of  o-ratification.  when  death  came  for  its  vic- 
tim. This  friend  was  Francis  Bacon.  Esq.,  who  died  in  1849.  ^^ 
the  age  of  ;?o  vears. 

Hon.  Oliver  \\'olcott.  the  younger,  late  Governor  of  this  State, 
was  also  a  member  of  this  Bar,  and  though  he  engaged  in  public 
life  soon  after  his  admission,  we  are  entitled  to  retain  his  name 
on  our  catalogue.  I  shall  not  speak  now  of  his  life  and  eminent 
services.       They  make  a   prominent  part  of  the  countrv's  history, 


30  LITCHFIELD  COLNTV   BENCH  AND  IIAR 

and  have  been,  within  a  few  years,  faithfuHv  written  by  his  near 
relative.  He  died  in  1833,  and  I  regret  to  say  that  his  remains 
lie  in  onr  grave-yard,  withont  a  monnment  to  mark  his  resting 
place.  His  bust  has  been  presented,  on  this  occasion,  to  the  Bar 
of  this  County. 

1  make  the  same  claim  to  retain  among  the  names  of  our  de- 
parted brethren,  that  of  Hon.  Frederick  Wolcott,  a  son  of  the 
elder  Gov.  Wolcott,  of  this  village.  He  became  a  member  of  this 
Bar  in  early  life,  and  with  high  prospects  of  professional  distinc- 
tion ;  but  he  accepted  the  proffered  office  of  Clerk  of  the  Courts 
and  Judge  of  Probate  for  this  district,  in  1793,  and  soon  relinquish- 
ed professional  duties.  For  several  years  he  was  a  prominent  mem- 
ber of  the  Council,  under  the  Charter  administration.  An  intimate 
connexion  with  this  gentleman,  both  public  and  private,  justifies 
the  liigh  opinion  T  have  ever  entertained  of  his  purity  of  life  and 
character,  his  ])ublic  spirit,  and  his  frank  and  open  bearing.  I  never 
pass  by  the  venerable  mansion  of  the  Wolcott  family,  in  my  daily 
walks  about  this  village,  without  recalling  the  stately  form  and 
ever  honorable  deportment  of  Frederick  Wolcott.  The  duties  of 
his  official  stations  were  discharged  with  the  entire  approbation  of 
the  community  for  many  years,  and  until  a  short  time  before  his 
death,  and  amidst  the  conflicts  and  overturnings  in  the  political 
revolutions  of  the  times. 

Roger  and  Richard  Skinner,  were  sons  of  Gen.  Timothy  Skin- 
ner of  this  town,  and  members  of  this  bar.  Roger  commenced 
business  in  this  village,  and  gave  assurance,  by  his  early  taients, 
of  his  future  standing;  but  he  was  here  in  the  most  bitter  state  of 
Connecticut  politics,  and,  as  he  believed,  was  compelled  to  escai:)e 
from  unmerited,  opposition.  He  removed  to  the  State  of  X"ew 
>'ork ;  soon  attained  a  deserved  eniinence  in  his  profession  and 
was  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  United  States  Court,  in  the  \orth- 
ern  District  of  that  State.  Richard  Skinner  removed  to  \'er- 
mont  and  afterwards  became  an  eminent  Judge  of  the  Superior 
Court,  and  ultimately  Governor  of  that  State. 

Tn  the  clerical  profession,  I  have  remarked  before,  that  there 
was  earlv  manifested  a  dispc^sition  rather  to  be  good  than  great. 
The  clergy  of  this  County  were  nearly  all  educated  men  ;  and  many 
of  them  rine  scholars  and  profound  divines,  and  if  there  were  not 
as  man\  here  as  in  some  other  regions,  whose  names  have  been 
transmitted  to  us  as  among  the  great  ones  of  New  England,  it  has 
been  because  the  severer  calls  of  parochial  duty,  and  stinted  means, 
and  Christian  graces  restrained  their  aspirations  after  fame.  Di- 
vinit\  lia>^  furnished  tin-  most  c(Mni^^(Mi  them'-  and  employed  the  most 
pens.     We  are  all  theolgians  in   New  England. 

Rev.  Joseoh  Hellamy.  D.  D..  of  Rethlem,  was  probably  the 
first  and  most  eminent  of  our  writers  on  this  subject.  He  was 
eloquent  and  impressive  as  a  preacher,  as  well  as  learned  and  pro- 
found as  a  scholar   and   writer.     He   published   several    theological 


CHURCH  S    CEXTEXNIAL    ADDRESS  3I 

Avorks  upon  practical  and  controversial  subjects,  besides  occasional 
sermons,  which  are  found  in  the  libraries  of  Divines,  and  have 
been  held  in  high  repute,  not  only  among  the  disciples  of  his  own 
peculiar  ojMnions,  but  among  others,  as  well  in  Europe  as  in  this 
country ;  and  a  modern  edition  of  them  has  been  recently  pub- 
lished. Dr.  Bellamy  was  the  grandfather  of  the  late  Josejih  H. 
Bellamy,  Esq.,  of  Bethlem,  a  gentleman  of  great  moral  and  pro- 
fessional worth. 

Rev.  Jna.  Edwards  was  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Bellamy  in  his  theolog- 
ical studies,  and,  although  not  a  native  of  this  Countw  he  resided 
among  us  for  several  years,  as  the  first  settled  minister  of  Cole- 
brook,  and  until  he  was  called  to  the  presidency  of  Union  Col- 
lege, in  1799.  He  was  the  author  of  several  volumes  of  great 
merit;  and  among  them,  a  treatise  upon  the  salvation  of  all  men. 
in  reply  t(^  Dr.  Chauncex' :  also,  a  dissertation  on  the  liberty  of 
the  will  in  reply  to  West,  and  observations  on  the  language  of  the 
Stockbridge   Indians. 

Rev.  Chauncey  Lee,  D.  D.,  who  succeeded  Dr.  Edwards,  as 
minister  in  Colebrook,  was  a  native  of  Salisbury,  and  a  son  of 
Rev.  Jonathan  Eee,  of  that  town.  He  was  educated  for  the  bar, 
and  commenced  iiractice  in  his  native  town.  This  he  soon  relin- 
quished for  the  clerical  calling.  Very  early  he  published  a  Deci- 
mal Arithmetic  and  afterwards  a  volume  of  Sermons  on  various 
subjects.  But  his  most  elaborate  work,  and  the  one  most 
esteemed  l.\  himself,  was  a  i)oem,  entitled  "The  Trial  of  \'irtue,"" 
being  a  paraphrase  oi  the  book  of  Job.  Dr.  Lee  was  a  gentle- 
man of  some  ecceiUricitics.  but  a  very  learned  divine  and  impres- 
sive  preacher. 

Rev.  Samuel  J.  Mills,  a  native  of  Torrington,  and  son  of  the 
venerable  pastor  of  one  of  the  societies  there,  is  entitled  to  a  more 
extended  notice  than  T  am  ]:)repared  on  this  occasion  to  repeat. 
Not  because  he  was  the  author  of  books,  but  the  author  and 
originator  of  liberal  and  extensive  benevolent  effort.  The  nc^ble 
cause  of  Foreign  ^lissions  in  this  country,  is  deei~)l\-  indebted  to 
him  as  one  of  its  most  zealous  and  active  projectors  ancl  friends. 
Another  of  the  most  splendid  charities  of  any  age  or  country. — 
the  Colonization  Society. — owes  its  existence  to  the  eft'orts  of  this 
gentleman  ;  and  his  name  will  be  cherished  b\-  the  philanthropists 
of  the  world,  along  with  those  of  Howard  and  Wilberforce. 

Rev.  Horace  Holley.  D.  D..  of  Salisbury,  was  son  of  ^Tr. 
Luther  Holley.  and  one  of  a  highly  distinguished  and  worthy 
family  of  brothers.  Dr.  Holley  was  first  ordined  pastor  of  a 
Church  and  Society  at  Greenfield,  in  Fairfield  County,  and  was 
one  of  the  successors  of  the  late  Dr.  Dwight,  in  that  parish.  He 
subsequently  removed  to  Boston,  and  became  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  pulnit  orators  among  the  eminent  divines  of  that  metrop- 
olis. He  afterwards  became  President  of  Transvlvania  L^niver- 
sity  in  Kentucky,  and  died,  while  vet  a  voung  man    on  ship-board. 


32  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

when  on  his  return  from  Xew  Orleans  to  New  England.  I  am  not 
informed  that  he  left  any  published  works  behind  him,  except 
sermons  delivered  on  special  occasions.  He  was  my  class-mate 
in  College,  and  I  knew  him  well. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Backus  of  Bethlem,  Rev.  Mr.  Hooker  of  Goshen, 
and  Rev.  Dr.  Porter  of  Washington,  are  remenibered  as  among 
the   most   learned   Divines   of  the   County. 

Of  the  Medical  Profession  and  the  Medical  Professors  here. 
mv  opportunities  of  information  have  not  been  extensive.  And 
yet  I  have  known  enough  of  them  to  persuade  me  that  a  more 
learned  and  useful  facult}-,  has  not  been  found  elsewhere  in  the 
State.  Empiricism  has  always  existed,  and  will  exist ;  and  the 
credulit}-  of  some  good  men  will  give  it  countenance.  We  depend 
upon  a  learned  medical  influence,  more  than  any  thing  else,  to 
save  us  from  its  death-dealing  results. 

As  early  as  January.  1767,  a  Medical  association  was  formed 
in  this  County,  composed  of  the  most  eminent  physicians  then  in 
practice  here.  Its  object  was  to  establish  rules  of  practice  and 
intercourse; — promote  medical  science  by  providing  for  annual 
consultations  and  dissertations,  and  to  protect  the  reputation  of 
the  profession  and  the  health  of  the  community,  from  the  inroads 
of  ignorant  pretenders  to  medical  science.  Among  the  names  of 
the  gentlemen  composing  this  body,  I  see  those  of  Joshua  Porter, 
Lemuel  Wheeler,  Joseph  Perry,  Seth  Bird,  William  Abernethy. 
Samuel  Catlin.  Simeon  Smith,  Cyrus  Marsh  Ephraim  Gitteau, 
John  Calhoun,  \-c.  ( )ne  of  the  earliest  ])hysicians  of  the  County 
was  Oliver  W^olcott.  He  was  the  son  of  Hon.  Roger  Wolcott. 
of  Windsor,  a  former  Governor  of  the  Colony.  He  had  served 
as  an  officer  in  the  French  war,  and  settled  himself  in  Goshen 
before  the  organization  of  the  County,  in  the  ])ractice  of  his  pro- 
fession. Whether  he  continued  in  practice  as  a  physician  after 
his  removal  to  this  town  is  not  known;  probably,  however  his 
official  duties  as  Sherifif  prevented  it.  He  was  subsequently 
honored  with  almost  every  official  place  which  a  good  man  would 
covet. — he  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  of  the 
Council,  a  Judge  of  Probate,  a  Judge  of  the  Countv  Court,  a 
Reoresentative  in  Congress,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Tn- 
de;)en(lence.  Lieutenant  Governor,  nnd  Governor  of  his  native 
State,  and  more  than  aH,  the  father  of  an  excellent  family.  He 
is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  uncommon  diffidence,  and  dis- 
trustful of  his  own  abilitv.  His  oublic  communications  display 
sound  judgment,  and  his  more  confidential  correspondence  a 
warm  affection  and  a  pure  purpose. 

Dr.  Seth  liird.  of  Tvitchfield,  probabl\-  lield  the  first  place 
among  the  earlv  physicians  of  the  County.  His  reputation  was 
wide-spread.  For  acuteness  of  di'^crimination  and  soundness  of 
judgment  he   was   not   excelled. 


church's  centennial  address  33 

Dr.  Joseph  Perry,  of  Woodbury,  was  not  only  eminent  in  his 
profession,  but,  what  was  unusual  in  his  day,  he  excelled  as  a 
belles-lettre  scholar  and  was  a  gentleman  well  read  in  various 
branches  of  science.  Later  generations  produced  their  eminent 
and  accomplished  physicians.  Dr.  Xathaniel  Perry,  son  of  the 
gentleman  just  named:  Dr.  Daniel  Sheldon,  of  this  town;  Drs. 
Fowler  of  Washington,  Rockwell  of  Sharon,  Welch  of  Norfolk 
Ticknor  of  Salisbury. 

Dr.  Samuel  Woodward,  of  Torrington,  was  not  only  a  physi- 
cian of  high  repute  himself,  but  he  was  almost  literally  a  father 
of  the  faculty.  Dr.  Samuel  B.  Woodword,  late  of  Worcester, 
Massachusetts,  Dr.  Henry  Woodward,  late  of  Middletown,  and 
Dr.  Charles  Woodward,  of  the  same  place,  were  his  sons, — born 
and  educated  in  this  County.  Few  men  in  any  community  have 
attained  a  more  eminent  and  useful  i:)Osition  than  Dr.  Samuel  ?>. 
Woodward.  Under  his  superintendance  the  Insane  Hosoital,  at 
Worcester,  was  established  and  for  many  years  conducted  and 
now  sustains  a  reoutation  equal  with  any  of  the  noble  charities 
of  this  country.  The  Annual  ReT)orts  of  Dr.  Woodward  and  his 
other  professional  writings,  and  the  success  of  his  elYorts  in  the 
cause  of  humanity,  have  earned  for  him  a  reputation  wliich  will 
long   survive. 

Among  the  Surgeons  of  note,  in  earlier  times  was  Dr.  Samuel 
Catlin,  of  TJtchfield.  and  at  a  later  jicriod.  Dr.  Samuel  R.  Oager, 
of  Sharon. 

The  medical  profession  in  this  County  has  ]iroduced  some 
writers  of  respectability.  Dr.  Klisha  North  was  for  several  years 
a  physician  of  extensive  i^-actice  in  Goshen,  and  he  afterwards 
removed  to  New  London.  He  i^ublished  an  approved  treatise  on 
spotted  fever,  which  extensivelv  prevailed  in  Goshen  and  its  vicin- 
ity, while  he  resided  there. 

Dr.  Caleb  Ticknor  of  Salisbury,  was  brother  of  the  late  ex- 
cellent Dr.  Luther  Ticknor,  of  that  town,  and  of  Dr.  Benajah 
Ticknor,  for  manv  vears  a  surgeon  in  the  navy  of  the  United 
States :  and  although  a  young  man  when  he  removed  to  New- 
York  City,  about  the  year  1832.  he  rose  rapidly  to  a  high  p\ace 
in  his  profession.  He  i)ublislied  several  medical  works,  the  most 
iwnular  of  which  was,  the  Philosoohv  of  Living,  which  consti- 
tutes one  of  the  volumes  of  Harpers'  Family  Library. 

The  Chipman  family,  a  numerous  brotherhood,  removed  from 
Salisbury  to  A'ermont  immediately  after  the  Revolutionary  War: 
it  iM-oduced  eminent  men.  Nathaniel  was  an  officer  of  the  Rev- 
olution. He  became  Chief  Justice  of  \^ermont.  and  a  Senator 
in  Congress.  He  published  a  small  volume  of  Judicial  R'-norts 
and  a  larger  treatise  upon  the  Principles  of  Government.  Daniel 
Chioman.  a  younger  brother  of  this  gentleman,  was  a  verv  prom- 
inent member  of  the  A^ermont  Bar.     He  was  the  author  of  a  verv 


M  I.ITCIIFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

creditable  essay  "On  the  Law  of  Contracts" ;  and  besides  a  vol- 
ume of  Law  Reports,  he  published  the  life  of  his  brother  Nathaniel, 
and   also   the  life  of  Gov.   Thomas   Chittenden. 

Hon.  Ambrose  Spencer,  late  Chief  Justice  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  was  born  in  Salisbury,  the  son  of  Philip  Spencer, 
Esq,  He  was  prepared  for  his  collegiate  course  under  the  in- 
struction of  Rev.  Daniel  Farrand,  of  Canaan  ;  studied  the  law,  I 
believe,  with  Hon.  John  Canfield,  of  Sharon,  whose  daughter  he 
married. 

Hon.  Josiah  S.  Johnston,  late  an  eminent  member  of  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  L'nitefl  States,  from  Louisania,  was  a  native  of  the  same 
town.  He  was  the  son  of  Dr.  John  Johnston,  who  removed 
early  to   Kentucky.     His  academical  studies  were  pursued  here. 

Samuel  ^loore,  of  Salisbury,  was  a  profound  mathmatician 
and  engaged  much  in  the  instruction  of  young  men  in  what  was 
called  the  surveyor's  art.  He  ]:)ublished  a  treatise  on  surveying, 
with  a  table  of  logarithms.  It  was  the  earliest  work  on  that 
"branch  of  mathematical  science  i:)ublished  in  this  country.  It 
intr()duced  the  method  of  com]:)uting  contents  by  calculation  en- 
tirely, without  measuring  triangles  by  scale  and  dividers.  It 
was  a  valuable  treatise,  but  was  nearly  superseded  by  a  more 
finished  (nie  b\  Rev.  Abel  Flint,  in  wliich  he  borrowed  much  from 
Moore. 

Ethan  Allen  is  deserving  of  notice  only  for  his  revolutionary 
services,  which  are  matters  of  public  histor\'.  He  published  a 
narrative  of  his  captivity  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  a  volume  of 
Infield  Theology.  He  was  a  native  of  this  county  :  the  town  of 
his  nativity  has  been  a  matter  of  dispute,  but  is  not  a  question 
worth  solving. 

We  have  had  Poets,  too,  besides  such  as  I  have  mentioned, 
wlio   deserve  a   remembrance  on  this   occasion. 

Hon.  John  Trumbull,  late  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  the  State,  was  born  in  ^^^atertown.  in  this  County,  in 
which  liis  father  was  a  minister.  The  Progress  of  Dulness.  and 
McFingal,  the  most  admired  of  his  Poems,  were  written  in  early 
life.  The\"  are  satyrica!  productions,  and  for  genuine  wit  have 
not  been  excelled  by  any  modern  efifort.  Judge  Trumbull's  ac- 
tive life   was  passed   chiefly  in  Hartford. 

A\'illiam  Ray  was  a  Salisbur\-  man.  born  in  1771.  and  while  a 
lad  develoi)e(l  a  taste  for  noetry  but  earl\-  destitution  and  mis- 
fortune.«^  ])ressed  upon  him  drove  him  into  the  Navy  of  the  Ignited 
States.  He  was  for  some  time  a  cantive  in  Trii:)oli.  and  in  t8o8 
lie  published  the  Horrors  of  Slavery,  and  in  18^1  a  volume  of 
Poems. 

Fbenezer  P.  Mason  was  a  native  of  Washington.  \^er\-  few 
men  gave  mnre  early  iiromise  of  literary  and  scientific  distinc- 
tion than  voung  Mason.  His  life  and  writings  were  published 
in    1842.  b\-   Professor   Olmsted,  of  Yale   College. 


CHURCH  S    CENTENNIAL    ADDRESS  35 

Washington  has  been  a  nursery  of  eminent  men,  of  whom  I 
cannot  now  speak  without  violating-  my  purpose  of  speaking  of  the 
■dead,  and  not  of  the   Hving. 

Mrs.  Laura  M.  Thurston,  of  Norfolk,  permitted  to  be  pub- 
lished by  her  friends,  several  poetical  pieces  of  uncommon  sweet- 
ness and  excellence. — the  I'aths  of  Life,  the  Green  Hills  of  my 
Father  Land,  and  others. 

There  are  but  few  occasions,  and  these  extreme  ones,  which 
call  out  the  qualifications  for  military  life. 

Gen.  Peter  B.  Porter  was  the  youngest  son  of  Col.  Joshua 
Porter,  of  Salisbury,  of  whom  1  have  spoken  before.  He  was 
a  graduate  of  Yale  College  and  pursued  the  stud\-  of  the  law 
where  so  manv  of  the  noted  men  of  the  country  have — at  the 
Litchfield  Law  School.  He  was  among  the  early  emigr^ants 
from  this  County  to  the  Gensee  country.  He  was  soon  called 
to  occupy  places  of  trust  and  power  in  the  State  of  his  adoption. 
He  was  a  member  of  Congress  when  the  project  of  the  Erie  Can- 
al was  first  suggested,  and  was  one  who,  with  De  Witt  Clinton, 
originated  that  important  national  work,  and  is  entitled  to  equal 
hcnor  with  him  for  it'^  projection.  He  urged  it,  when  in  Ci^n- 
gress,  as  a  national  work,  in  a  speech  of  great  strength,  and  asked 
for  the  aid  of  the  nation.  As  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, he  was  associated  with  Henry  Clay  on  a  Commitree  to 
consider  the  causes  of  complaint  against  Great  P>ritain,  and  drew 
up  the  report  of  that  Committee,  recommending  the  declaration 
of  the  war  of  1812.  He  thus  early  ardently  es])oused  the  cause 
of  his  country,  and  stood  ])y  the  side  of  Tompkins  and  other 
])atriots,  in  their  efforts  to  prosecute  that  war  to  an  honorable 
result. 

He  was  then  a  civilian  only:  but.  impatient  and  mortified  at 
the  ill  success  of  our  arms  ui)on  the  northern  frontier — his  own 
house  pieced  by  the  enemy's  shot,  on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara 
River — he  threw  off  the  civil  and  assumed  the  military  attitude. 
He  raised  a  regiment  of  ardent  volunteer  troops,  and  at  their 
head,  soon  contributed  to  turn  tlie  tide  of  success.  His  services 
at  Fort  Erie  and  the  battles  at  the  Falls,  have  been  repeatedh- 
told  by  the  writers  of  the  country's  history.  I  will  not  repeat 
them.  So  highly  were  they  esteemed  by  the  general  Government 
a'ud  the  State,  that  thanks  and  medals  were  presented,  and  l)efore 
the  close  of  the  war  he  was  offered  the  chief  command  of  the 
arm}-,  bv  the  President.  Under  the  administration  of  the  younger 
Adams  he  was  offered,  and  accepted,  the  place  of  Secretarv  of 
^^'ar. 

My  time  confines  me  to  the  notice  of  the  most  consjiicuous  of 
our  sons,  native  and  adopted :  but  there  were  others,  in  everv 
town,  perhaps  of  equal  merit  but  with  fewer  opportunities  of 
displa\-.  The  list  of  our  1-1-iembers  of  Assembly,  and  of  men  bv 
whose   efforts  the   foundations  of  society   were  laid  here,   and   bv 


3<)  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

wliom  tilis  County  has  been  brought  from  a  repulsive  region  of 
mountains  and  rocks  to  its  present  condition  of  fertility  and  wealth, 
would  show  an  aggregate  of  moral  and  intellectual  worth  which 
no  region.  e(jual  in  extent,  has  surpassed. 

And  by  whom  were  all  these  eminent  and  excellent  men  reared 
and  pre])ared  for  the  stations  which  they  have  occupied  in  society? 
B}  fathers,,  whose  own  hands  have  toiled — by  mcjthers,  who  were 
the  spinsters  of  the  days  in  which  the\'  lived,  and  who  knew  and 
practised  the  duties  of  the  kitchen  as  well  as  the  parlor,  and  to 
whom  the  music  of  the  spinning-wheel  and  the  loom  was  more 
necessary  than  that  of  the  piano  and  the  harpsichord. 

The  spirit  of  strict  economy  has  marked  our  progress  from  the 
beginning,  and  by  no  other  could  our  fathers  have  left  to  us  this 
heritage  of  good !  Removed  from  the  profusion,  and  from  what 
is  esteemed  the  higher  liberality  of  cit}'  habits,  our  County  has  not 
fallen  behind  other  kindred  communities  in  encouraging  the  benev- 
olent  operations  of  these  latter  days. 

A  Alissionarv  Society,  auxiliary  to  the  lioard  of  Commissioners 
of  Foreign  !vlissions.  was  established  in  this  County,  in  the  year 
1813,  and  has  been  in  active  operation  since.  This  noble  charity, 
since  its  organization,  has  received  and  paid  over,  as  near  as  I  can 
ascertain,  the  sum  of  about  $125,000.  The  benevolent  otTerings 
of  other  denominations — the  Episcopalians,  Methodists,  and  Bap- 
tists, to  the  purposes  of  their  respective  religious  operations,  I  have 
no  present  means  of  knowing ;  that  they  have  been  equally  liberal 
in  proportion  to  their  means,  with  their  Congregational  brethren, 
1  have  no  reason  to  doubt. 

In  the  year  1817,  the  Foreign  Mission  School  was  established 
in  Cornwall,  with  the  special  object  of  s])rea(ling  Christian  truth 
and  the  means  of  civilization  among  the  heathen..  The  origin  of  this 
effort,  if  not  accidental,  was  gradual  in  its  conception  and  develop- 
ment. Two  young  natives  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  were,  by  the 
directing,  and  almost  visible  hand  of  Providence,  thrown  among  us 
and  fell  under  the  notice  of  Mr.  Elias  Cornelius,  in  181 5.  then  a 
student  in  Yale  College,  and  since  distinguislied  as  a  Divine  and 
Philanthropist.  The  names  of  these  young  heathen,  as  known 
among  us,  were  Henry  Obookaih  and  William  Tenoe.  These  young 
men  were  carefully  instructed  by  Mr.  Cornelius.  Samuel  J.  ^lills,  and 
Fdwin  0 wight,  with  a  chief  object  of  preparing  them  to  become 
Christian  Missionaries  among  their  countrymen.  They  were  soon 
after  placed  under  the  care  of  Rev.  Joel  Harvey,  then  a  Congrega- 
tional minister  in  Goshen  ;  at  his  suggestion,  the  Xorth  Consociation 
of  Litchfield  County,  liecame  their  patrons.  The\-  were,  not  long 
after,  joined  by  Thomas  Hoi)oo,  their  countryman,  and  all  were 
l)laced  under  proper  instruction  for  the  great  ol)ject  designed.  But 
a  more  liberal  and  enlarged  ])roject  was  conceived  :  a  Seminar \  in 
a  Christian  land,  for  the  instruction  of  the  heathen  joined  with  the 
purpose   of   preparing    voung   men    here    for   luissionarv   service   in 


church's  centennial  address  37 

heathen  lands.  It  was  a  splendid  thought,  and  the  American  Board 
attempted  its  consummation.  , 

Rev.  Timothy  Dwight,  Hon.  John  Treadwell,  James  Morris, 
Esq..  Rev.  Drs.  Beecher  and  Chapin,  with  Messrs.  Harvey  and 
Prentice,  were  authorized  to  devise  and  put  in  operation  such  a 
Seminary,  and  the  result  was.  the  Foreign  Mission  School  at  Corn- 
wall. Young  natives  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  from  China, 
Australasia,  and  from  the  Indian  nations  on  this  Continent,  as  well 
as  American  youths,  were  instructed  there.  The  school  continued 
successfully  until  1827.  The  establishment  of  the  Sandwich  Island 
Mission,  was  one  of  the  important  results  of  this  school. 

Many  years  before  the  modern  movement  in  a  temperance  re- 
formation was  suggested,  sue]-:  a  project  was  conceived  in  this  town 
and  encouraged  b\-  the  most  prominent  men  here.  A  Temi)erance 
Pledge  was  signed  in  May,  1789,  reinuliating  the  use  of  distilled 
liquors,  by  36  gentlemen  :  and  among  the  names  annexed  to  it,  were 
those  of  Julius  Deming,  Benjamin  Tallmadge,  Uriah  Tracy,  Eph- 
raim  Kirby,  Moses  Seymour,  Daniel  Sheldon,  Tapping  Reeve, 
Frederick  Wolcott,  and  John  Welch — names  well  known  and  well 
remembered  here.  I  believe  the  first  temperance  association  of 
modern  date,  in  the  County,  was  formed  among  the  iron  operatives 
at  Mount  Riga,  in  Salisbury.  The  results  of  this  grand  effort 
have  been  as  successful  here  as  elsewhere.  If  any  special  cause  has 
operated  to  retard  the  final  success  of  this  charity,  it  has  been  the 
strangling,  death-ensuing  embrace  of  party  politicians — the  scathing 
curse  of  many  a  good  thing.  As  long  ago  as  1816,  there  were  dis- 
tilleries in  every  town  in  the  County ;  and  in  New  Milford,  as  many 
as  26,  and  in  the  whole  County,  169!  and,  [resides  these,  there  were 
188  retailers  of  spirits,  who  paid  licenses  under  the  excise  laws  of 
the  United  States,  to  the  amount  of  $3,760.  Whether  there  be  a 
distillery  in  the  County  now,  I  am  not  informed ;  I  believe  but  very 
few. 

I  have  not  attempted  to  trace  the  modifications  of  society  here 
— its  progressive  changes  in  modes  of  opinion  and  consequent  action. 
It  would  lead  me  too  far  from  my  object,  which  has  been  only  to 
s])eak  of  events,  and  the  men  who  have  been  engaged  in  them. 

Before  the  Revolution  there  was  little  to  excite.  There  was  a 
common  routine  of  thinkino-  which  had  been  followed  for  vears — 
somewhat  disturbed,  to  be  sure.  b\'  what  were  called  "iiczc  lights" 
in  religion.  But  the  results  of  our  emancipation  from  the  mother 
country  turned  everything  into  a  different  channel,  opinions  and 
all.  A  new  impulse  broke  in  upon  the  general  stagnation  of  mind 
which  had  been,  and  made  every  body  speculators  in  morals,  religion, 
])olitics,  and  every  thing  else.  My  own  memory  runs  back  to  a 
dividing  point  of  time,  when  I  could  see  something  of  the  old  world 
and  itczc.  Infidel  opinions  came  in  like  a  flood.  ~Slr.  Paine's  "Age 
of  Reason,"  the  works  of  \'oltaire,  and  other  Deistical  books,  w^ere 
broad  cast,  and  young  men  suddenly  became,  as  they  thought,  wiser 


38  UTCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

than  their  fathers ;  and  even  men'  in  high  places,  among  us  here, 
were  suspected  of  infidel  opinions.  At  the  same  time  came  the 
ardent  preachers  of  Mr.  Wesley's  divinity,  who  were  engaged  in 
doing  hattle  with  Infidelity  on  the  one  hand,  and  Calvinistic  theology 
on  the  other.  Here  were  antagonistic  forces  and  influences,  which 
introduced  essential  changes,  and  both  have  been  operating  ever 
since,  And  it  would  afford  an  interesting  subject  of  investigation, 
to  trace  these  influences  to  their  results.  The  Methodist  preachers 
first  visited  this  County  about  the  year  1787,  and  organized  their 
first  classes  in  Salisbury  and  Canaan.  This  was  their  first  appear- 
ance in  the  State,  and,  I  believe,  in  New  England.  In  this  County 
they  were  received  with  courtesy,  and  found  many  to  encourage 
them  among  those  who  did  not  well  understand  the  old  divinity. 

I  might  detain  you  in  speaking  of  the  prevalence  and  effects  of 
party  spirit  here ;  but  as  this,  as  well  as  denominational  controversy, 
is  unpleasant  to  me,  I  forbear.  There  was  a  time,  about  the  year 
1806,  when  the  spirit  was  rife  here,  and  led  to  prosecutions,  fines 
and  imprisonment,  and  a  disturbance  of  social  relations,  which  has 
never  since  re-appeared  to  the  same  extent. 

I  need  not  say  any  thing  of  the  present  condition  of  the  County. 
This  you  see  and  know.  Its  Railroads,  penetrating  regions  not  long 
since  supposed  to  be  impenetrable ;  villiages  rising  up  in  the  deep 
valleys,  whose  foundations  have  been  hidden  for  nearly  a  century ; 
and  fertility  and  thrift,  where  a  few  years  ago  were  uncultivated 
forests  and  wasting  water-falls. 

Of  what  shall  we  complain?  Is  it  that  we  do  not,  all  of  us, 
make  haste  to  be  rich?  Ah!  is  it  so,  my  brethren?  Is  there  noth- 
ing but  wealth  which  can  satisfy  a  rational  mind  and  an  immortal 
spirit? 

Of  the  future  we  may  indulge  proud  hopes,  while  we  doubt  and 
fear.  Progress  is  the  word  of  modern  theorists,  but  of  doubtful 
import.  Innovation  is  not  always  progress  towards  useful  results. 
Of  this  we,  who  are  old,  believe  we  have  seen  too  much,  within  a 
few  years,  and  fear  much- more  to  come.  Our  County  is  but  a 
small  part  of  a  State  and  Nation,  and  so  our  fate  stands  not  alone. 
We  can  but  look  to  our  political  institutions  as  our  ultimate  pro- 
tectors, and  I  urge  upon  you  all,  my  brethren,  their  unwavering 
support.  Our  Constitution-  requires  no  innovating  process  to  im- 
prove it.  It  demands  of  us  more  than  a  mere  political  respect  and 
preference — almost  a  religious  reverence.  Love  for  it,  in  all  its 
parts,  in  every  word  and  sentence  which  compose  it,  should  be 
interwoven  into  all  our  notions  of  thinking,  speaking  and  acting. 
Disturb  but  one  stone  in  this  great  arch — but  one  compromise  in 
this  holv  covenant — and  the  whole  nutst  tumble  into  ruin ! 


i^atly  Kioltta 


SKETCHES 


OF  THE 


EARLY  LIGHTS 


OF  THE 


LITCHFIELD  BAR 


BY 


HON.  DAVID  S.  BOARDMAN 


1860 


BOARDMAN  S  SKETCHES  4I 


PATRIDGE    THATCHER. 


Patridge  Thatcher  was  the  first  man  who  practiced  the  legal  pro- 
fession in  New  Milford.  He  was  not  educated  to  the  profession,  but 
took  up  the  trade,  because  there  were  none  of  the  craft  hereabout, 
when  this  county  was  organized,  which  was  after  he  came  to  middle 
age.  He  was  a  native,  1  have  been  told,  of  Lebanon  in  this  state,  and 
.  came  to  New  Milford,  I  know  not  how  long  ago.  He  was,  how- 
ever, a  married  man  at  the  time.  He  had  no  children :  but  a  large 
number  of  negroes,  whom  he  treated  with  kindness  enough  to  put 
to  shame  the  reproaches  of  all  the  abolitionists  in  Xew  England. 
He  was  a  man  of  strong  mind,  of  rigid  morality,  and  religious  to  the 
letter  according  to  tlie  strictest  sect  of  orthodox  episcopacy.  He 
adored  Charles  I.  as  a  martyr  and  he  hated  Oliver  Cromwell  worse 
than  he  did  the  evil  one.  Loyalty,  unconditional  loyalty,  was  the 
prime  element  of  his  political  creed.  Of  course,  his  name  was  not 
found  in  any  list  of  the  wacked  Whigs  of  the  Revolution,  and  had  he 
lived  in  these  days,  he  would  most  thoroughly  have  eschewed  democ- 
racy and  abolitionism.  On  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary 
war,  his  loyalty  necessarily  silenced  his  voice  in  court,  and  he  died 
soon  after  its  conclusion.  Lawyer  Thatcher,  as  he  was  always 
called,  was  undoubtedly,  a  very  odd,  a  very  honest  and  a  very  good 
man.  I  wish  there  were  many  such  men  now,  both  on  account  of 
the  good  example  they  would  set,  and  the  harmless  anuisement  they 
would  afiford. 


DANIEL  EVERITT. 

Daniel  Everitt  was  a  native  of  Bethlem  and  settled  in  Xew  Alil- 
ford  as  a  lawyer,  some  time  during  the  early  part  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  probably  as  early  as  '76  or  '"/y,  possibly  earlier,  as  from 
a  record  I  have  access  to  I  see  he  was  married  to  a  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Taylor  on  the  first  of  January,  1778,  and  I  remember 
that  he  lived  here  some  time  before  that  event.  He  had  not  a  colle- 
giate education,  but  was  a  man  of  good  education  and  received  an 
honorary  degree.  He  read  law  with  Judge  Adams  of  Litchfield,  and 
I  remember  to  have  heard  him  say,  that  he  occasionaly  officiated  in 
Mr.  Adams'  place  as  state's  attorney,  when  he,  (Adams)  was  absent 
in  Congress,  which  he  often  was,  during  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 
Mr.  Everitt  was  a  man  of  much  wit,  boundless  extravagance  of  ex- 
pression, quick  conception,  and  in  command  of  language  and  fluency 
of  utterance,  unsurpassed,  but  not  a  man  of  much  depth  of  mind  nor 
had  he  much  legal  learning:  his  library  extended  little  beyond 
Rlackstone  and  Jacobs'  Law  Dictionary.  He  had,  I  believe,  a  very 
good  run  of  practice,  when  the  Court  really  opened  to  do  civil  busi- 
ness, after  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  His  success  in  this  respect 
was,  however,  of  rather  short  duration  ;  a  number  of  younger  law- 


42  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

vers  having  about  that  time  commenced  practice  here,  and  other  cir- 
cumstances conspired  to  carr)'  business  away  from  him.  and  he  never 
recovered  it.  While  studying-  law  I  heard  him  argue  a  case  or  two, 
keeping  the  Court  house  in  a  roar  by  his  wit  and  sarcasm,  but  by  the 
time  I  was  admitted,  viz.  in  '95,  he  had  about  given  up  attending 
Courts  at  Litchfield,  though  he  was  not  fifty  years  of  age — and  indeed 
he  was,  I  think,  but  fifty-seven  when  he  died  in  1805.  I  met  him, 
however,  a  few  times,  before  Arbitrators  and  Justices,  and  had 
enough  to  do  to  parry  his  home  thrusts  of  good  natured  wit.  Before 
him  I  often  went,  as  he  tried  almost  all  the  Justice  cases,  which  he 
always  did  with  entire  integrity  and  usually  came  to  a  correct  con- 
clusion. He  represented  this  town.  I  think  three  times  in  the  general 
assembly,  and  as  a  member  of  the  convention  which  ratified  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.  He  was  a  man  of  strict  honesty,  en- 
tire moral  rectitude  of  conduct,  and  a  professor  of  religion.  He  was, 
however,  much  given  to  sociality,  and  to  that  conviviality  which  some 
time  borders  on  a  kindred  indulgence.  Mr.  Everitt  succeeded  the 
late  Col.  Samuel  Canfield  as  Judge  of  Probate  in  this  district  in 
1790,  and  held  that  office  till  liis  death  at  the  time  above  mentioned. 


TAPPING    REEVE. 


I  saw  much  of  Judge  Reeve's  practice  at  the  bar  for  nearly 
five  years,  during  which  time  he  was  engaged  in  almost  every  case  of 
importance  tried  in  the  Superior  Court  at  Litchfield,  and  never  failed 
to  argue  every  one  in  which  he  was  engaged,  if  argued  at  all.  In  the 
County  Court,  after  I  became  acquainted  with  him,  he  did  not  prac- 
tice. His  school  had  become  numerous,  and  he  gave  up  his  practice 
in  that  Court  because  (I  suppose, )  it  too  much  interrupted  his  course 
of  daily  lectures,  and  knowing  as  he  did  that  he  should  have  a  part 
in  every  cause  expected  to  be  tried  in  the  Superior  Court.  And,  by 
the  way,  trials  were  then  managed  and  got  through  with  in  a  reason- 
able time,  and  not  sufifered  to  be  dragged  out  to  the  abominable  and 
shameful  length  which  they  now  are,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  Pro- 
fession for  indulging  in  it,  and  of  the  Courts  for  permitting  it. 

I  joined  Judge  Reeve's  school  in  the  fall  of  1793,  and  he  was  not 
placed  on  the  bench  till  the  spring  of  1796,  so  that  I  saw  him  at  the 
Bar  during  nine  sessions  of  the  Suju^rior  Court,  and  never  failed  to 
listen  to  him,  if  1  could  avoid  it,  with  unqualified  love  and  admiration 
through  every  speech  he  made,  to  its  conclusion.  I  say  zvith  love,  for 
no  instructor  was  ever  more  generally  beloved  by  his  pupils,  and  in- 
deed entirely  so  except  it  was  by  those  whose  love  would  have  been 
a  reproach  to  the  object  of  it.  As  a  reasoner,  he  had  no  superior 
within  the  compass  of  my  observation  of  forensic  performances.  I 
mean  true,  forcible  and  honest  reasoning.     In  sophistry,  he  was  too 


boardman's  sketches  43 

honest  to  indulge,  and  too  discerning  to  suffer  it  to  escape  detection 
in  the  argument  of  an  adversary. 

As  a  speaker  he  was  usually  exceedingly  ardent,  and  the  ardor 
he  displayed  appeared  to  be  prompted  by  a  conviction  of  the  justice 
of  the  cause  hewas  advocating.  His  ideas  seemed  often,  and  indeed, 
usually,  to  flow  in  upon  him  faster  than  he  could  give  utterance  to 
them,  and  sometimes  seemed  to  force  him  to  leave  a  sentence  unfinish- 
ed, to  begin  another, — and  in  his  huddle  of  ideas,  if  I  may  so  express 
it,  he  was  careless  of  grammatical  accuracy,  and  though  a  thorough 
scholar,  often  made  bad  grammar  in  public  speaking.  Careless  as 
he  was  of  his  diction  and  thoughtless  as  he  w^as  of  ornament  in  ordi- 
nary cases,  yet  some  elegant  expressions  and  fine  sentences  would 
seem,  as  if  by  accident,  to  escape  him  in  almost  every  speech.  But  in 
such  cases  as  afforded  the  proper  field  for  the  display  of  eloquence, 
such  as  actions  of  slander,  malicious  prosecutions,  etc.,  and  m  that 
part  of  such  cases  as  usually  prompt  to  exertions  of  the  kind,  his  hur- 
ried enunciation  and  grammatical  inaccuracies,  all  forsook  him,  and 
then  he  never  failed  to  electrify  and  astonish  his  audience.  Many  of 
these  used  to  be  recited  to  me  by  those  who  had  often  heard  him  and 
it  fell  to  my  lot  to  witness  one  such  occasion.  In  an  action  for  mali- 
cious prosecution,  in  closing  the  argument,  on  entering  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  damages,  he  burst  forth  into  such  a  strain  of  dignified  and 
■soul-thrilling  eloquence,  as  neither  before  nor  since,  has  ever  met  my 
ear.  The  first  sentence  he  uttered  thrilled  through  every  nerve  of  my 
entire  frame  to  the  very  ends  of  my  fingers,  and  every  succeeding 
sentence  seemed  to  increase  in  overwhelming  effect.  I  was  perfectly 
entranced  during  its  delivery,  and  for  an  hour  afterwards  I  trembled 
so  that  1  could  not  speak  plain.  His  manner  was  as  much  changed 
as  his  language,  and  to  me  he  looked  a  foot  taller  than  before.  The 
next  day  I  went  to  him  and  asked  him  to  commit  to  writing  the  con- 
cluding part  of  his  speech,  to  which  request  he  said  in  the  simplicity 
of  his  nature,  "Why,  if  I  should  do  that,  perhaps  I  should  make  it 
better  than  it  really  was,  and  that  would  not  be  fair."  We  told  him 
(Mr.  Bacon  was  with  me, )  there  was  no  danger  of  that,  for  we  knew 
it  could  not  be  bettered.  Well,  he  said  he  would  try.  but  he  did  not 
know  whether  he  could  recall  it  to  memory,  for  there  was  not  a  word 
of  it  written  before  hand.  A  day  or  two  after  he  saw  me  in  Court, 
behind  his  seat,  and  beckoned  me  to  him  and  said  he  had  tried  to 
comply  with  my  request,  but  it  was  so  gone  from  him  that  he  could 
make  nothing"  of  it. 

I  believe  I  have  said  enough  in  regard  to  Judge  Reeve  as  an 
advocate,  and  that  is  the  extent  of  your  enquiry.  As  a  Judge,  you 
are  acquainted  with  his  reputation,  historically,  though  you  probably 
never  saw  him  on  the  bench,  as  he  left  it  nearly  thirty-nine  years  ago. 
to  wit,  in  May.  1816.  to  the  regret  of  all  admirers  of  legal  learning 
and  lovers  of  impartial  justice. 

As  I  loved  and  admired  Judge  Reeve  while  living,  and  mourned 
him  when  dead.  I  love  to  think  and  talk  of  him  now  that  I  have  at- 


44  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH,AND  BAR 

tained  to  a  greater  age  than  he  did,  though  he  reached  some  eighty- 
four  years,  and  I  feel  tempted  to  obtrude  upon  you  some  such  leading 
incidents  of  his  life  as  I  am  in  memory  possessed  of,  and  which  can- 
not be  much  longer  retained. 

Judge  Reeve  was  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  and  was 
born  on  the  south  side  of  Long  Island.  He  was  educated  at  Prince- 
ton College,  where  he  graduated  in  1763  at  seventeen  years  of  age 
as  I  have  heard  him  say.  He  was  immediately  appointed  tutor  of 
the  grammar  school  connected  with  the  college,  and  in  that  station 
and  as  a  tutor  in  the  college  itself,  he  remained  seven  years.  He 
then  came  to  Connecticut  to  study  law,  which  he  prosecuted  in  the 
office  of  Judge  Root,  then  a  practicing  lawyer  in  Hartford,  and  as 
soon  as  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  he  settled  in  the  practice  at  Litch- 
field. This  I  suppose  to  have  been  in  1772.  He  had  previously 
married  Sally  Burr,  the  eldest  child  and  only  daughter  of  President 
Burr  of  Princeton  College,  and  the  sister  of  the  celebrated  Aaron 
Burr,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Judge  Reeve  in  the  grammar  school.  The 
Revolutionary  war  having  commenced  within  a  short  time  after  he 
came  to  the  bar,  there  was  but  little  civil  business  done  in  the  Courts 
until  its  conclusion,  or  nearly  so.  He  therefore  early  betook  himself 
to  giving  instruction  to  young  gentlemen  who  looked  forward  to  the 
legal  profession  for  support  and  advancement  in  life,  when  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  country  would  allow  of  its  exercise.  This  employ- 
ment tended  greatly  to  systematize  and  improve  what  stock  of  legal 
science  he  already  had  acquired,  and  aided  by  his  uncommonly  fine 
talents  and  native  elocjuence  early  secured  to  him,  the  deserved  rep- 
utation of  an  able  lawyer.  About  the  close.  I  believe,  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  either  through  an  acquaintance  with  the  late  Judge 
Sedgwick  or  otherwise  he  was  introduced  to  some  practice  in  Berk- 
shire County,  and  in  the  celebrated  criiii.  con.  case  of  Winchell  vs. 
Goodrich,  gave  such  a  display  of  his  oratorical  powers  as  astonished 
the  natives,  and  that,  together  with  the  conspicuous  part  he  took  with 
Judge  Sedgwick  in  the  great  case  of  General  Ashley's  negroes,  which 
put  an  end  forever  to  slavery  in  Massachusetts,  he  established  a  rep- 
utation which  ensured  him  business  there  as  long  as  his  avocations  at 
home  allowed  him  to  attend  to  it.  This  however,  I  believe,  was  not 
very  long.  The  delicate  health  of  his  wife,  and  his  great  professional 
business  at  home  induced  him  to  forego  any  business  which  called 
him  abroad,  and  to  utterly  decline  any  sort  of  public  appointment 
whatsoever,  during  her  life.  She  died  to  the  deep  grief  of  as  devoted 
a  husband  as  ever  lived,  a  few  months  before  it  became  necessary  to 
fill  two  vacancies  in  the  Superior  Court,  occasioned  by  the  death  of 
Chief  Justice  Adams  and  the  final  extinction  of  mental  capacity  in 
Judge  Huntington — and  to  one  of  those  vacancies  Judge  Reeve  was 
appointed. 

I  must  draw  this  long  letter  to  a  close.  It  is  enough  to  say. 
that  no  act  of  Judge  Reeve's  life  ever,  in  the  least  degree,  lessened 
the  admiration  and  respect  entertained  for  his  capacity,  integrity  and 


BOARDMAxV  S  SKETCHES  45 

learning,  or  even  diminished  the  esteem  and  affection  cherished  for 
the  spotless  purity  of  his  moral  deportment  through  a  long  life,  nor 
the  reverence  extorted  from  all  for  the  deep  religious  impression 
which  adorned  his  old  age  and  perfected  his  character.  He  was,  I 
presume,  in  youth  extremely  handsome. 


JOHN   ALLEN 


John  Allen  was  born  in  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  sometime,  I 
believe,  in  1762,  of  respectable  parents,  though  not  distinguished  in 
society,  as  I  remember  to  have  heard  him  say  that  he  was  the  son  of 
a  joiner.  There  were  but  two  children  in  the  family,  a  son  and  a 
daughter,  both  much  distinguished  in  life  for  many  good  qualities, 
and  especially  for  dignity  of  manner  and  deportment,  but  the  win  11  in g 
and  amiable  accomplishments  all  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  female,  gaining 
her  many  admirers  and  among  others,  an  husband  worthy  of  her,  in 
that  excellent  man,  Hlizur  Goodrich  of  New  Haven.  Their  father 
died  during  the  minority  of  both  children.  ^Ir.  Allen,  having  an 
excellent  common  school  education,  though  not  a  classic  education, 
became  a  teacher,  and  being  impelled  by  a  spirit  of  adventure,  some- 
what romantic  as  he  was  thought  in  those  days,  went  suddenly,  and 
without  the  knowledge  of  his  friends,  and  while  yet  a  minor,  to  Ger- 
mantown  near  Philadelphia,  where  he  obtained  a  place  as  instructor 
of  the  young  classes  of  an  academic  establishment  of  some  note  at 
the  time.  How^  long  he  remained  in  the  above  mentioned  establish- 
ment I  do  not  know,  but  soon  after  leaving  the  place,  and  I  believe 
almost  immediately,  he  came  to  .\ew  Mil  ford,  and  taught  a  school  for 
some  six  months,  and  from  here  went  immediately  into  Mr.  Reeve's 
law  school,  and  after  the  accustomed  ])eriod  of  study  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  immediately  settled  in  practice  in  Litchfield,  where 
he  spent  his  life.  He  confined  himself  almost  entirely  to  the  practice 
of  Litchfield  County,  though  occasionally  when  called,  in  consequence 
of  the  eminence  to  which  he  soon  attained  in  the  profession,  he  ]>rac- 
ticed  in  other  counties,  in  some  cases  of  importance,  and  especially  in 
the  Federal  Circuit  Court,  in  which,  for  a  few  years  after  the  forma- 
tion of  the  present  Constitution  of  the  L''^nited  States,  some  consider- 
able business  was  done.  Mr.  Allen,  however  never  went  abroad  in 
quest  of  business,  thinking  that  the  very  great  share  of  Attorney  busi- 
ness which  he  acquired  in  being  always  found  in  his  office,  equal, 
at  least  in  point  of  profit,  to  what  counsellor  business  he  might  obtain 
bv  attending  Courts  in  other  counties,  considering  that  all  the  coun- 
sellor business  flowing  from  the  attorney  business  which  he  did,  he 
was  sure  to  be  engaged  in.  From  the  time  I  entered  the  law  school 
in  the  fall  of  1793,  I  occupied  a  room  in  his  office,  and  had  free  ac- 
cess to  his  ample  library  and  boarded  at  the  same  house  with  him. 
During  all  that  time,  and  all  the  remaining  years  of  his  prosperous 


46  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

practice,  which  indeed  lasted  till  the  apparent  commencement  of  his 
rapid  decline,  soon  followed  by  death,  he  was  engaged  in  almost  every 
case  of  any  importance  in  the  Superior  and  County  Court.  He  was 
certainly,  a  very  successful  and  powerful  advocate,  equally  with  the' 
Jury  as  with  the  Court,  a  thoroughly  read  lawyer,  equal  in  point  of 
legal  science  to  any  one  at  our  bar  during  the  fore  part  of  the  time  I 
am  speaking  of,  except  Tapping  Reeve,  who  had  no  rival,  and  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  period,  James  Gould,  of  whom  I  need  say  nothing 
as  you  knew  him  in  his  meridian  light.  Mr.  Allen  always  made  dili- 
gent and  faithful  preparation  of  all  cases  committed  to  his  care,  and 
made  himself  fully  acquainted  with  every  point  of  law  and  every  ac- 
cessible point  of  evidence  which  could  arise  in  the  case,  and  was 
therefore  usually  successful  when  the  case  deserved  success. 

If  I  knew  that  you  ever  saw  Mr.  Allen,  I  would  omit  any  attempt 
to  describe  his  personal  appearance,  for  I  am  sure  any  one  who  ever 
saw  his  colossal  form  and  imposing  visage,  would  never  need  to  have 
him  described  in  order  to  recall  his  appearance.  He  was  six  feet  four 
or  five  inches  high,  very  erect  and  wath  an  attitude  and  walk  well 
calculated  to  set  ofT  his  full  stature,  and  though  quite  lean,  weighed 
full  230  pounds.  His  countenance  was  strongly  marked  and  truly 
formidable,  his  eyes  and  eye  brows  dark,  his  hair  dark,  what  little  he 
had  for  he  was  quite  bald,  far  back,  even  before  middle  age,  and  in- 
deed his  whole  appearance  was  calculated  to  inspire  dread,  rather 
than  affection.  His  manner  and  conversation  were,  however,  such 
as  to  inspire  confidence  and  respect,  though  little  calculated  to  invite 
familiarity,  except  with  his  intimates,  of  whom  he  had  a  few,  and 
those,  knowing  the  generous  and  hearty  friendship  of  which  he  was 
capable,  were  usually,  much  attached  to  him  and  ready  to  overlook 
all  his  harsh  sallies,  imputing  them  to  the  "rough  humor  which  his 
mother  gave  him."  His  feelings  were  not  refined,  but  ardent,  gener- 
ous and  hearty.  His  friendships  were  strong  and  his  aversions  equal- 
ly so — and  as  I  used  to  say  of  him,  speaking  to  others,  "his  feelings 
were  all  of  the  great  sort."  He  neither  enjoyed  nor  suffered  any 
thing  from  many  of  those  little  incidents  which  so  often  affect,  either 
pleasingly  or  painfully,  minds  of  a  more  refined  texture.  As  he  had 
no  taste  for  such  things,  nor,  as  it  would  seem,  any  faculty  of  per- 
ceiving, so  he  knew  no  language  appropriate  to  their  description,  but 
in  respect  to  those  things  and  principles  which  he  thought  worthy  of 
his  regard,  he  lacked  no  power  of  language  to  make  himself  fully 
and  forcibly  understood.  For  neutral  ground,  either  in  morals  or 
politics,  he  had  no  taste,  and  but  little  less  tiian  absolute  abhorrence. 
As  a  specimen  of  his  feelings  and  language,  better  than  I  can  des- 
cribe, 1  will  give  you  the  laconic  answer  to  an  enquiry  of  him,  why 
he  took  the  Aurora  the  leading  democratic  paper  in  the  county,  then 
under  the  guidance  of  that  arch  democrat,  Duane  ;  he  replied  it  was 
because  he  wanted  to  kuozv  zvhat  they  were  about  in  the  {nfer)ial 
regions.  And  after  giving  this  specimen  I  need  make  no  futher  at- 
tempt to  give  von  an  idea  of  his  humor,  manners  and  language. 


boardman's  sketches  47 

After  Mr.  Allen  was  married,  which  was  not  till  he  was  towards 
forty  years  old,  and  went  to  house  keeping.  I  boarded  at  his  house  at 
his  express  solicitation  for  many  years  while  attending  Court ;  though 
he  took  no  other  one,  nor  ever  named  to  me  any  price,  nor  would  he 
count  the  money  I  handed  to  him  when  leaving  for  home,  seeming  to 
receive  it  only  because  I  refused  to  stay  on  any  other  terms.  I  there- 
fore saw  much  of  him  in  his  family,  where  his  conduct  was  always 
dignified,  proper  and  kind.  He  was  proud,  very  proud,  and  justly 
so.  of  his  wife,  who  was  a  woman  of  much  personal  beauty,  polished 
manners,  and  great  and  even  singular  discretion,  and  for  whom  he 
entertained,  I  believe,  an  ardent  affection. 

Before  his  marriage  and  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  Mr.  Allen  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  fifth  Congress,  where  he  distinguished  him- 
self at  a  time  when  Connecticut  was  never  more  ably  represented  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  would  undoubtedly  have  been  cho- 
sen for  as  long  a  period  as  he  would  have  desired  to  be  a  member  ot 
that  body,  but  he  declined  a  further  election.  He  was  elected  an 
Assistant  in  1800.  and  was  re-elected  for  the  five  succeeding  years, 
and  as  such  was  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors. 
For  several  years,  previous  to  his  election  to  Congress,  he  had  repre- 
sented the  town  of  Litchfield  in  the  General  Assembly.  His  wife  was 
a  grand  daughter  of  the  first  Governor  Griswold.  His  only  son.  the 
Hon.  John  \Vm.  Allen  of  Cleveland.  Ohio,  has  been  a  member  of 
Congress  from  that  State  and  is  now  a  very  distinguished  man  there. 
His  onlv  surviving  daughter  resides  also  in  Cleveland,  and  is  the 
wife  of  her  brother's  immediate  successor  in  Congress.  Mrs.  Allen, 
after  a  rather  brief  widowhood,  accepted  the  hand  of  a  Mr.  Perkins 
of  Oxford  in  the  State  of  Xew  York,  a  man  of  respectability  and 
wealth. 


BARZII.LAI     SLOSSOX. 

The  request,  which  is  the  subject  of  yours  of  the  4th  inst..  is  too 
alluring  in  its  nature  to  be  long  unattended  to.  So  nearly  am  I  alone 
in  the  world  that  an  invitation  to  hold  converse  about  those  of  my 
age  and  standing  in  life,  and  who  have  now  slumbered  in  the  grave 
for  more  than  forty  years,  and  especially  those  who  were  so  much 
beloved  and  esteemed  as  were  those  of  whom  you  solicit  my  at- 
tention, is  quite  irresistible. 

In  speaking  of  Mr.  Slosson.  I  must  first  observe  that  I  had  form- 
ed a  tolerably  correct  notion  of  him  before  I  ever  saw  him.  \\'hen  I 
was  a  boy  his  father  was  often  at  my  father's  house,  intimately  ac- 
quainted there,  and  I  believe,  scarcely  ever  passed  that  way  without 
calling  and  holding  a  pretty  long  chat,  for  he  was  never  in  a  hurry, 
and  his  peculiar  turn  of  mind,  abundance  of  common  sense,  and  great 
fund  of  wit.  joined  to  his  singularly  slow,  emphatic  and  sententious 


48  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

mode  of  talking,  was  such  as  to  secure  the  attention  of  any  one,  and 
especially  a  bov.  He  used,  occasionally  to  speak  of  his  children,  and 
especially  of  his  oldest  son  Barzillai,  of  whom  he  was  manifestly  very 
proud,  representing  him  to  be  always  at  the  head  of  the  school  when 
small,  and  afterwards  used  to  speak  with  high  gratification  of  his  in- 
dustry and  tact  at  acquiring  the  higher  branches  of  knowledge  with- 
out the  aid  of  an  instructor,  and  more  particularly  the  knowledge  of 
the  dead  languages,  of  which  he  knew  nothing  himself.  And  this 
account  given  by  the  old  gentleman,  from  intimate  intercourse  and 
frequent  conversation  with  his  son,  when  I  afterwards  became  ac- 
quainted with  him,  I  found  was  by  no  means  exaggerated.  And  to 
his  excellent  and  accurate  common  school  education,  he  owed  much, 
very  much  of  his  character  for  exact  accuracy  and  correctness  in  all 
that  he  said  and  did  through  life.  He  was  about  the  best  reader  I 
ever  heard,  wrote  a  fair,  handsome  and  legible  hand,  and  in  the  un- 
failing correctness  of  his  orthography  and  use  of  terms,  no  lexico- 
grapher excelled  him,  and  in  everything  pertaining  to  mere  English, 
home  and  common  school  education,  no  one  appeared  to  be  more 
thoroughlv  proficient.  And  in  Greek  and  Latin  I  never  saw  his  su- 
perior, except  old  President  Stiles,  nor  with  that  exception  perhaps, 
his  equal,  unless  it  was  old  Parson  Farrand  of  Canaan,  and  in  the 
other  branches  of  collegiate  education  he  was,  to  say  the  least,  above 
mediocraty.  As  he  entered  college  not  until  the  senior  year.  and.  I 
believe,  did  not  even  attend  during  the  whole  of  that  year,  he 
could  not,  of  course,  expect  to  shine  and  did  not  shine  in  the  college 
honors  depending  upon  the  faculty,  but  lie  availed  himself  of  the  right 
to  become  a  candidate  for  the  honors  of  Dean  Scholar,  and  obtained 
the  first  premium  for  excellence  in  Greek  and  Latin,  in  a  class  of 
unusually  high  reputation.  This.  I  suppose,  he  did  merely,  out  of 
a  laudable  pride,  for  he  did  not  avail  himself  of  the  pecuniary  re- 
ward which  would  have  required  him  to  reside  in  Xew  Haven  ;  for 
he  went,  immediately  after  his  graduation  with  one  of  his  class- 
mates (Air.  afterwards  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith.)  to  reside  in  Sharon, 
as  one  of  the  instructors  in  the  Sharon  Academy,  then  in  full  and 
successful  operation.  He  soon  after  became  a  student  at  law.  under 
Gov.  Smith's  instruction,  and  the  first  County  Court  which  sat  after 
his  two  year's  clerkship  had  expired,  being  in  Fairfield  County. 
he  went,  there  for  examination  and  admission  to  the  Bar.  This 
was  I  believe  at  the  November  Term.  1793.  It  was  not  until  he 
began  to  attend  Court  at  Litchfield,  and  while  I  was  in  the  law  school 
there,  that  I  first  became  personally  acquainted  with  Air.  Slosson 
though  I  had  barely  seen  him  once  or  twice  before.  After  my  admis- 
sion to  the  Bar,  being  located  in  adjoining  towns,  we  often  met  each 
other  before  Justices,  and  consequently  before  the  upper  courts. 
From  our  frequent  meetings  and  intercourse  at  Litchfield  and  else- 
where. I  became  greatly  attached  to  him.  and  finally,  for  a  number  of 
years  he  and  I,  with  Southmayd  for  our  constant  companion,  always 
occupied  the  same  room  at  Catlin's  Hotel  during  every  court  until  his 


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boardman's  sketches  49 

death  and  there  was  the  last  time  I  ever  saw  him  in  Hfe.  Soon  after 
the  Court  adjourned,  hearing-  of  his  rapid  decHne,  I  set  out  to  visit 
him,  and  on  the  way,  heard  that  he  had  died  the  night  before.  I  how- 
ever went  on  and  stayed  with  the  family  until  I  assisted  in  burying 
him.  This  was  in  January,  1813,  and  in  that  grave  I  felt  that  I  had 
buried  a  sincere,  and  I  am  sure,  a  much  loved  friend ;  on  whose  char- 
acter and  conduct  in  life  I  could  reflect  with  melancholy  satisfaction, 
unmarred  by  a  single  reproachful  recollection  or  one  which  I  could 
wish  to  have  forgotten. 

Mr.  Slosson  had  been  out  of  health  for  a  very  considerable  time, 
and  fears  were  apprehended  on  his  account,  in  which  he  fully  and 
rationally  participated.  So  gradual,  however,  was  the  operation  of 
his  disorder,  that  he  continued  his  attention  to  business  until  some 
three  or  four  weeks  before  his  death.  He  attended  court  at  Litch- 
field, the  first  and  I  think  the  second  week  of  the  December  term, 
the  month  before  his  decease. 

Mr.  Slosson's  great  fondness  for  ancient  literature,  rendered  him 
scarcely  just  in  his  comparative  estimate  of  that  with  modern  im- 
provements. As  a  lawyer  he  was  highly  respectable  in  theory  and 
remarkabh-  accurate  in  practice :  as  a  pleader,  I  do  not  remember 
that  he  ever  had  occasion  to  ask  for  an  amendment,  or  to  alter  a  title 
of  what  he  had  written.  As  an  advocate  he  was  clear,  deliberate, 
methodical  and  logical  in  liis  deductions.  He  spoke  in  much  of  the 
peculiarlx-  emi^hatic  manner  of  his  father,  above  mentioned,  though 
not  with  his  unusual  slowness.  He  was  always  cool  and  self-pos- 
sessed, rarely  warming  into  any  high  degree  of  animation,  or  aiming 
at  elTect  to  appear  eloquent,  but  he  never  failed  to  secure  a  respect- 
ful .and  satisfied  attention.  Though  not  one  of  the  most  leading 
advocates  of  which  there  are  always  some  three  or  four  at  any  Bar, 
he  might,  at  least  be  estimated  an  equal  to  any  of  the  second  class 
of  the  Litchfield  liar  which  was  tlien,  certainly,  a  highly  respectable 
one. 

Though  not  an  aspirant  after  public  preferment,  and  from  his 
habitually  modest  and  retiring  habits,  not  calculated  to  push  his  way 
where  opportunities  ofYered,  he  was  yet,  at  the  time  of  his  decease,  in 
a  fair  wav  of  promotion.  He  was  early  and  often  elected  to  the 
legislature'  from  his  native  town,  and  indeed  their  usual  representa- 
tive until  the  October  session,  181 2.  when  he  was  elected  Clerk, 
which  in  those  days  was  a  sure  stepping  stone  to  further  advance- 
ment, and  having  myself  been  a  witness  of  the  manner  in  which  he 
performed  the  duties  of  that  oHice,  for  which  no  man  was  better 
qualified.  I  am  sure  he. established  a  reputation,  which,  had  Provi- 
dence permitted,  promised. a  solid  and  lasting  existence. 

Mr.  Slosson's  political  opinions  were  of  the  genuine  Washingto- 
nian.  political  school.  None  of  your  heady,  rash,  and  merely  parti- 
zan  notions  found  favor  with  him.  He  was  a  constant  and  honest 
adherent  to  the  political  views  then  prevalent  in  this  State.  He 
left  a  widow  and  two  sons — the  oldest  John  William,  has  been  and  I 


50  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

believe  now  is  a  merchant  in  Kent.  The  second  son.  Nathaniel,  a 
very  promising  boy,  was,  I  believe  soon  after  his  father's  death,  taken 
under  the  care  of  his  uncle,  William  Slosson,  a  distinguished  lawyer 
of  New  York,  and  was  by  him  educated  at  Union  College  and  for 
the  Bar.  and  died  soon  after  his  admission. 

The  foregoing  sketch  of  the  leading  incidents  in  Mr.  Slosson's 
life,  may  be  a  sufficient  indication  from  which  to  deduct  his  true 
character,  but  I  must  indulge  myself  in  adding,  that  I  never  knew 
or  heard  of  a  single  act  of  his  life,  either  in  youth  or  mature  years, 
that  left  even  a  shade  upon  his  reputation.  Cool  and  deliberate  in 
his  temperament,  never  hurried  away  by  enthusiasm,  for  enthusiasm 
never  manifested  itself  in  his  nature,  except  in  his  passion  for  ancient 
literature,  he  was  sure  to  think  and  act  with  propriety.  He  was 
nevertheless  warm  and  faithful  in  his  attachments,  but  not  so  far  as 
to  warp  his  conscientious  regard  for  integrity.  He  was  perfectly 
just  and  generous  in  his  intercourse  with  the  world,  honest  in  his 
predilections  and  uncompromising  in  his  love  of  virtue  and  detesta- 
tion of  vice.  In  morality  his  principles  were  without  a  taint  and  his 
practice  through  life  in  conscientious  conformity  with  them.  In  re- 
ligion he  was  a  firm  and  steadfast  believer  in  the  great  doctrines  of 
the  gospel,  though  not  a  public  professor.  His  principles  were  those 
of  true  rational  Calvanism,  imswayed  by  vindictive  zeal  or  hysteri- 
cal weakness. 

You  observed  in  your  letter  that  you  never  saw  Air.  Slosson.  He 
was  a  small  man.  not  much,  if  any.  under  medium  height,  but  of  slen- 
der frame  and  countenance.  Though  not  dark  complexioned  his 
countenance  was  rather  dusky,  his  skin  not  clear,  his  features  though 
far  from  handsome  bespoke  intelligence  and  were  therefore  not  dis- 
agreeable. His  general  appearance  was  more  like  that  of  the  late 
Leman  Church  than  any  other  member  of  the  Bar  I  can  think  of, 
though  he  was  somewhat  larger  and  more  erect. 


SAMUEL    W.    SOUTHM.Wl). 

In  the  life,  conduct  and  character  of  Samuel  W.  Southmayd  there 
were  some  peculiarities,  such  as  render  it  a  matter  of  difficulty  to  des- 
cribe him  in  such  a  manner,  as  to  make  them  intelligible  to  one  who 
did  not  personally  know  him. 

I  never  saw.  or  heard  of  him  until  I  became  a  member  of  the  law 
school  in  the  fall  of  the  year  1793,  of  which  he  had  then  been  a  mem- 
ber about  one  year,  I  believe,  and  of  which  he  continued  a  constant 
attendant  during  the  eighteen  months  which  I  spent  there.  He  was 
admitted  to  the"  Bar  the  next  term  after  I  was.  to  wit:  September 
Term.  1795,  and  passed  as  good  an  examination  as  I  ever  heard 
there,  or  elsewhere,  he  having  been  for  the  full  period  of  three  years 
under  Judge  Reeve's  tuition.     He  was  a  native  of  Watertown,  where 


BOARDMAX  S  SKETCHES  5 1 

he  settled  in  practice,  and  where  he  spent  his  Hfe.  Like  Mr.  Slosson. 
he  had  an  excellent  common  school  education.  Beyond  that,  his  ac- 
quirements did  not  extend  far  in  an  academic  course — enough,  how- 
ever, I  believe,  to  enable  him  to  understand  the  homely  law-latin  used 
in  our  books.  Few  have  entered  upon  the  practice  of  law,  with  a 
better  store  of  legal  learning  than  Mr.  Southmayd.  but  the  place  in 
which  he  settled  was  not  calculated  from  its  location  and  the  habits 
of  the  people,  by  no  means  litiguous,  to  furnish  much  practice,  and 
he  was  too  honest  to  promote  litigation ;  and  furthermore,  he  had  no 
legal  adversary  there  except  an  old  gentlemen  who  never  had  any 
more  legal  learning  than  was  necessary  for  a  Church  Warden,  and 
whose  ignorance  made  him  the  victim  of  Southmayd's  merry  witch- 
ery and  innocent  cunning,  of  both  of  which  he  had  a  superabundance, 
though  he  never  indulged  in  malicious,  or  even  very  serious  mischief, 
and  indeed  in  none  except  such  as  would  do  to  relate  for  the  purpose 
of  making  fun  in  merry  compan}".  Anecdotes  of  that  description 
used  to  be  related  in  great  numbers.  As  a  pleader,  Mr.  Southmayd 
was  always  sure  to  have  all  in  his  drafts  which  was  requisite  and  per- 
tinent to  the  object  in  view,  and  in  all  liis  declarations.  atTording 
room  for  coloring  circumstances  to  be  inserted,  there  was  pretty  sure 
to  be  found,  slyly  slipped  in.  some  ingenious  slang  whang,  or  South- 
maydism,  as  we  used  to  call  it.  He  was  not  ambitious  of  arguing 
cases  in  Court,  but  when  he  did,  he  always  displayed  much  ingenuity, 
and  attracted  respectful  attention  from  the  audience  as  well  as  from 
the  triers.  And  before  arbitrators,  referees  and  committees  a  more 
formidable  opponent  could  hardly  be  found.  And  although  his  prac- 
tice was  not  large,  and  as  was  observed  of  Mr.  Slosson  he  was  not 
among  the  leading  practitioners  at  the  Litchfield  l>ar,  he  was  certain- 
ly a  very  respectable  lawyer,  uixin  a  par  with  the  foremost  of  the  sec- 
ond class,  and  much  beloved  and  respected  by  all  whose  good 
opinions  are  desirable. 

As  was  observed  in  the  outset,  there  were  peculiarities  in  Mr. 
Southmayd's  private  character  and  deportment,  which  it  is  difficult 
to  describe  or  reconcile.  Though  of  a  benevolent  disposition  and  full 
of  good  nature  and  kind  feelings,  there  was  yet  in  him  a  vein  of  ad- 
venture after  intellectual  amusement,  which,  from  its  very  nature, 
could  not  be  gratified  but  at  the  expense  of  others,  and  often  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  render  them  ridiculous  in  the  view  of  third  persons 
to  whom  the  results  of  the  adventure  was  related.  I  have  many 
times  joined  most  heartily  in  the  laugh  at  the  relation  of  the  result 
of  many  such  seemingly  innocent  pieces  of  roguery,  though  I  could 
not  help  condemning  the  mischief,  while  participating  in  its  fruits. 
In  all  such  indulgences,  Southmayd  never  entertained  the  least  ma- 
lice, for  his  heart  was  a  stranger  to  it,  but  his  intense  love  of  fun,  and 
enjoyment  of  the  ridiculous  often  impelled  him  to  go  beyond  the  line 
of  honest  propriety.  I  used  often  to  reproach  him  with  it.  but  my 
admonitions  were  not  well  calculated  to  take  eflfect,  when  given  at 
the  close  of  a  hearty  laugh. 


5^  IJTCHFIEI.D  COLXTN-    iiKXCH    AND    I'.AR 

From  what  I  have  been  saying  of  Mr.  Southmayd  you  would.  I 
presume,  be  ready  to  conclude  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  cheerly 
and  happy  of  men.  But  the  case  was  directly  the  reverse,  and  during 
a  considerable  period  of  his  life,  and  that  too,  the  most  valuable  part 
of  it,  he  was  a  very  unhappy  man,  indeed,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he  had 
recourse  to  much  of  the  indulgence  of  that  peculiar  propensity  I  have 
attempted  to  describe  for  the  purpose  of  dispelling  a  mental  malady 
which  for  a  long  time  oppressed  and  preyed  upon  his  heart.  He  was 
for  many  years  the  victim  of  the  strongest  species  of  hypochondria 
that  ever  mortal  man  was.  It  never  showed  itself  in  long  fits  of  set- 
tled melancholy  or  monomania,  but  in  sudflen  fits  and  starts.  After 
hours  of  cheerful  conversation,  and  while  in  entire  health,  he  would 
suddenly  complain  of  great  distress,  and  exhibit  unmistakable  evi- 
dence of  great  terror  and  apprehensions  of  immediate  dissolution. 
One  very  extraordinary  instance  I  will  relate.  He  and  I  had  been 
alone  many  hours,  conversing  and  reading  together,  and  he,  not  in 
the  least  complaining,  when  he  at  once  sprung  from  his  seat,  and  with 
a  scream  as  would  have  alarmed  me,  had  it  been  any  other  person, 
and  jjressing  both  hands  upon  his  breast  he  exclaimed  that  he  was 
going  to  die  immediately.  I  stepped  to  him  and  gently  and  calmly 
said  to  him,  "don't  be  alarmed,  you  are  not  going  to  die" — for  we 
never  treated  him  as  if  he  thought  his  distress  imaginary, — and  put 
my  hand  gently  upon  him  to  lead  him  to  the  bed,  when  he  raised  one 
hand  from  his  breast  and  thrusting"  his  finger  against  the  side  of  his 
head,  declared,  with  another  outcry  that  something  was  passing 
through  his  head.  I  persuaded  him  to  lie  down,  telling  him  tiie  feel- 
ing would  pass  off  in  a  few  minutes,  but  he  continued  to  groan  for 
some  time.  I,  knowing  what  w^ould  cure  him,  took  up  and  began  to 
read  to  him  one  of  IJurke's  finest  essays  which  lay  by  me.  and  turning 
to  a  passage  of  extraordinary  eloquence  read  it ;  on  which  he  sprung 
up  on  end  in  the  bed,  and  exclaimed  "was  ever  anything  finer  than 
that !"  I  continued  on  reading,  and  in  the  course  of  half  an  hour  he 
was  well  and  cheerful  as  ever.  This  was  the  most  extraordinary  in- 
stance I  ever  saw  in  him,  but  those  in  a  degree,  like  it  were  frequent. 
He  always  w^ent  to  iDed  an  hour  or  two  before  Slosson  and  I  did.  he 
saying  that  he  never  was  able  to'get  sleep  until  he  had  gone  through 
a  great  deal  of  such  feelings  as  he  never  would  attempt  to  describe. 

Mr.  Southmayd  was  greatly  esteemed  in  his  native  town,  by,  I 
believe,  almost  every  one,  both  old  and  young.  He  was  early  in  life 
sent  to  the  legislature,  and  that  often,  and  was  so,  T  know,  the  last 
vear  of  his  life.  He  died  of.  lung  fever  in  March.  1813.  about  two 
months  after  the  death  of  his  friend  Slosson.  At  the  December 
Term,  1812,  the  three  who  had  so  long  occupied  the  same  room  in 
perfect  harmony,  were,  for  the  last  time  there  together.  At  the  Feb- 
fuarv  Terni  of  the  vSupreme  Court.  Southmayd  and  T  occupied  it,  but 
felt  that  we  were  in  solitude,  and  in  the  next  term  it  seemed  to  me, 
most  emi)hatically,  a  solitude,  and  more  like  a  family  vault  than  like 
an  abode  for  living  men.  and  I  believe  I  have  never  been  into  it  since. 


boardman's  sketches  53 

Mr.  Southmayd  was  undoubtedly  an  honest  and  honorable  man, 
of  uncommon  pleasing  manners  and  much  beloved,  and  I  never  heard 
that  he  had  an  enemy.  Indeed  the  amenity  of  his  manner  and  the 
gentleness  of  his  temper  almost  forbade  it. 

The  family  to  which  Air.  Southmayd  belonged  was  of  the  Con- 
gregational order,  and  two  of  his  sisters  married  Congregational 
clergymen.  He,  however,  joined  himself  to  the  Episcopal  church  of 
which  he  was  a  member  after  he  settled  in  life,  and  of  which.  I  be- 
lieve he  was  a  communicant,  but  am  not  sure.  He  died  unmarried, 
and  I  believe  in  the  39th  or  40th  \ear  of  his  age. 


JOHN  COTTON  SMITH. 

At  your  request,  I  now  inform  you.  that  the  Hon.  John  Cotton 
Smith,  only  son  of  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith  of  Sharon,  was 
born  there  on  the  12th  day  of  February.  1765.  It  is  said  that  for  the 
first  six  years  of  his  life  his  instruction  and  training  was  almost 
wholly  conducted  by  his  excellent  mother,  and  to  her  government 
and  precepts  he  is  said  to  have  attributed  much  of  his  extraordinary 
success  in  life.  His  common  school  education,  as  exhibited  in  after 
life,  must  have  been  of  the  most  exactly  accurate  kind.  His  class- 
ical instruction  preparatory  to  entering  college,  was  commenced  at 
home,  and  completed  under  the  tuition  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brinsmade 
of  Washington.  He  entered  Yale  College  in  September.  1779,  when 
between  fourteen  and  fifteen  years  of  age.  and  though  }oung.  main- 
tained a  high  standing  in  his  class,  as  api>eared  by  the  share  he  had  in 
the  exercises  of  the  commencement  at  his  graduation,  the  appointees 
being  less  than  one-fourth  of  the  entire  class.  Immediately  after  his 
graduation  in  September,  1783,  he  entered  as  a  law  student  in  the 
office  of  the  Hon.  John  Canfield  in  his  native  town,  and  there  con- 
tinued until  he  could  be  by  law  admitted  to  the  Bar.  which  was  in  the 
March  Term.  1786.  a  month  after  coming  to  twenty-one  years  of 
age:  and  Mr.  Canfield.  his  legal  preceptor,  having  died  a  few  months 
after  his  admission  to  the  Bar.  a  large  portion  of  business  for  a  long 
time  habitually  fiowing  for  management  to  Mr.  Canfield's  office,  he 
having  for  many  years  been  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the  County, 
Mr.  Smith's  commencement  in  business  was  thereby  attended  by  for- 
tunate circumstances,  and  he  improved  them  with  becoming  industry, 
and  from  the  very  first  found  himself  in  a  lucrative  practice,  which 
continued  to  increase  until  called  into  absorbing  public  business. 
He  was  first  elected  to  the  legislature  in  1793  and  frequently  after- 
wards ;  indeed,  from  1796  to  October.  1800  he  was  constantly  a  mem- 
ber, and  during  the  two  sessions  of  1800  was  speaker  of  the  house, 
and  while  occupying  that  station  in  the  October  session  he  was  in- 
formed by  the  Goveror  that  he  was  elected  a  member  of  Congress 
to  fill  a  vacancv  which  had  occurred  for  the  then  approaching  last 


54  I.lTCIfFlKLD   COLXTV    BKXCH   AXD    UAR 

session  of  the  Sixth  Congress,  and  also  for  the  full  term  of  the 
Seventh  Congress  ;  soon  after  which  information,  he  resigned  the 
chair  in  the  house,  and  returned  home  to  prepare  for  assuming  his 
newly  assigned  duties.  It  so  happened  that  the  extra  session  to 
which  he  had  been  chosen  was  that,  which,  by  law,  was  to  be  holden 
at  the  new  City  of  ^^'ashington,  whither  he  repaired  and  served 
through  that  term,  and  the  Seventh  Congress ;  was  re-elected  to  the 
Eighth  and  again  to  the  Ninth  Congress,  at  the  expiration  of  the 
Ninth  Congress  he  declined  any  further  elections  to  that  honorable 
body.  During  his  congressional  career  he  did  not  participate  much 
in  debate,  but  his  fine  talent  at  presiding  was  early  discovered,  and 
caused  him  frequenth'  to  be  called  to  the  chair  when  the  House  was 
in  committee  of  the  whole,  and  he  thus  presided  during  some  of  the 
most  memorable  debates  which  distinguished  those  days.  He  was 
during  all  but  the  first  session,  a  member  of  the  committee  of  claims 
while  in  Congress,  and  during  the  Eighth  and  Ninth  Congress  at 
the  head  of  that  committee,  though  in  the  minority.  In  May,  1809, 
Mr.  Smith  was  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  which  he 
resigned  in  Alay,  181 1,  on  being  elected  Lieutenant-Governor;  in 
May,  181 3  he  was  elected  Governor,  and  re-elected  to  that  office  until 
1818,  when,  a  political  revolution  having  taken  place,  he  retired 
finally  from  public  life.  His  administration  of  the  gubernatorial 
office  embraced  the  greater  part  of  the  war  of  1812  and  181 5,  and 
his  duties  in  all  respects  were  performed  with  dignity,  propriety 
and  grace. 

After  his  retirement  to  private  life  much  of  his  time  was  devoted 
to  religious  studies,  and  his  eminent  Christian  and  literary  accom- 
plishments being  extensively  known  and  appreciated  he  was  selected 
as  the  first  president  of  the  Connecticut  Bible  Society  on  its  estab- 
lishment. In  1826  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  American  Board 
of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,  and  in  183 1  president  of  the 
American  Bible  Society.  In  181 5  he  received  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
As  old  age  pressed  upon  him  his  hearing  became  impaired,  and  he 
never  would  sufi^er  himself  to  hold  public  stations  when  he  could  not 
perform  all  their  duties  with  becoming  grace,  he  resigned  all  his 
posts  of  honor,  and  on  the  7th  day  of  December  he  died  in  the  8ist 
year  of  his  age. 

In  an  eulogy  delivered  before  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society 
by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Andrews,  then  of  Kent,  soon  after  the  decease  of 
Mr.  Smith,  giving  a  concise  but  eloquent  historical  sketch  of  his  life 
and  character,  stating  that  he  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  Litchfield 
County,  and  observing  that  at  the  time  there  was  no  bar  in  the  state 
which'presented  a  more  splendid  array  of  legal  forensic  talents  than 
this,  iiroceeds  to  state  the  standing  which  he  at  maturity  acquired,  in 
the  following  words  quoted,  as  he  says,  from  the  communication  of  a 
well  informed  competent  judge,  long  acquainted  with  Mr.  Smith  at 
the  bar: — "He  was  esteemed,  and  justly  so,  an  accurate  pleader,  and 
a  well  read  and  learned  lawyer,  and  though  some  of  those  alluded  to 


BOARDMAN  S  SKETCHES  55 

exceeded  him  in  force  and  popularity  as  an  advocate,  none  of  them 
surpassed,  and  in  my  judgment,  none  of  them  equalled  him  in  grace 
of  manner  and  elegance  of  diction  and  utterance." 

Early  in  life  Gov.  Smith  married  ]\Iiss  Margaret  Everson  of 
Amenia,  N.  Y.,  a  young  lady  of  man\-  accomplishments,  who  lived 
to  old  age.  The  issue  of  this  marriage  was  only  one  child,  William 
M.  Smith,  Esq.,  of  Sharon,  a  gentleman  much  esteemed  for  his 
many  virtues  and  eminent  piety.  A  grandson  bearing  his  name  is 
now  the  Minister  resident  of  the  United  States  to  the  court  of 
Bolivia,  South  America. 


NATHANIEL    SMITH. 

(Prom  HoJUstcr's  History  of  Connecticut.) 

"I  received  a  line  from  m}'  friend.  General  Sedgwick,  stating 
that  is  was  your  desire  that  he  would  ask  of  me,  in  your  behalf,  to 
furnish  you  with  some  facts  in  relation  to  the  late  Nathaniel  Smith, 
and  mv  views  of  his  character,  which  might  be  of  use  to  vou  in  the 
preparation  of  the  work  you  have  in  hand. 

"I  am  of  course  aware  that  this  application  is  owing  to  the  ac- 
cidental circumstance  that  T  am  the  oklest,  if  not  the  only  member  of 
the  profession  now  living,  who  had  much  personal  acquaintance  with 
that  truly  able  and  excellent  man,  or  saw  much  of  him  in  the  exercise 
of  his  forensic  or  judicial  talents.  Judge  Smith  was  indeed  one  of 
nature's  nobles,  and  considering  the  limited  range  of  his  early  educa- 
tion, he  had  few  equals  and  perhaps  no  superior  in  the  profession 
which  he  chose,  and  which  he  eminently  adorned.  You  are  doubtless 
aware  that  Judge  Smith  had  only  such  an  education  in  childhood  and 
vouth,  as  the  common  schools  of  the  countr\-  afforded  at  the  time.  It 
was  such,  however,  as  a  boy  of  unusual  capacity  and  industrious 
habits  would  acquire  from  such  a  source,  and  such  as,  under  the 
guidance  of  uncommon  discretion  through  life,  rarely  permitted  its 
defects  to  be  disclosed. 

"When  I  iirst  went  to  the  Law  School  in  Litchfield,  which  was 
in  the  fall  of  I7<j3,  Mr.  Smith  though  not  over  thirty  years  old,  was 
in  full  practice,  and  engaged  in  almost  every  cause  of  any  importance. 
Indeed,  he  was  said  to  have  established  a  high  reputation  for  talents 
in  the  first  cause  he  argued  in  the  higher  courts.  It  was  upon  a  trial 
for  manslaughter,  which  arose  in  his  native  town,  and  in  which  he 
appeared  as  junior  counsel,  and  astonished  the  court,  the  bar,  and  all 
who  heard  him.  Not  long  afterwards,  in  the  celebrated  case  of  Jed- 
ediah  Strong  and  wife,  before  the  General  Assembly,  (she  having  ap- 
plied for  a  divorce),  he  greatly  distinguished  himself  again,  and  thus 
became  known  throughout  the  state  as  a  young  lawyer  of  the  first 
promise :  and  the  reputation  thus  'early  acquired  was  never  suft'ered 


56  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH   AND   BAR 

to  falter,  but  on  the  other  hand,  steadily  increased  in  strength  until 
his  elevation  to  the  bench. 

"During  my  stay  in  Litchfield,  and  after  my  admission  to  the 
bar.  I  of  course  saw  Mr.  Smith,  and  heard  him  in  almost  all  the  im- 
portant cases  there ;  and  as  I  was  located  in  the  south-west  corner 
town  in  the  county,  adjoining  Fairfield.  I  almost  immediately  obtain- 
ed some  business  which,  though  small,  was  such  as  during  nearly  all 
mv  i)rofessional  life  caused  me  to  attend  the  courts  in  that  county, 
where  I  found  Mr.  Smith  as  fully  engaged  and  as  highly  esteemed  as 
in  his  own  county.  In  New  Haven  I  also  knew  he  had  a  very  con- 
siderable practice. 

"It  is  worthy  also  to  be  observed,  in  forming  an  estimate  of  Mr. 
Smith's  professional  talent  and  character,  that  there  never  at  any 
period  was  an  abler  bar  in  Connecticut,  than  during  his  practice.  In 
Litchfield  county,  were  Judge  Reeve.  Judge  Adams.  General  Tracy, 
John  Allen,  Judge  Gould.  X.  B.  Benedict,  and  others  ;  at  the  Fairfield 
countv  bar,  were  Pierpont  Edwards,  Judge  Ingersoll,  and  Judge 
Daggett,  constantly  from  New  Haven,  Judge  Edmonds,  S.  B.  Sher- 
wood. R.  M.  Sherman.  Judge  Chapman,  and  Governor  Bissell ;  and 
in  New  Haven,  besides  the  three  above  named,  were  James  Hillhouse, 
Judge  Baldwin,  and  others. 

"As  I  suppose  it  not  probable  that  you  ever  saw  Judge  Smith, 
as  he  ceased  to  attend  courts  in  1819,  and  died  when  you  was  very 
young,  I  will  observe,  what  you  have  doubtless  heard,  that  he  was  a 
large  and  fine  appearing  man,  much  of  the  same  complexion  of  the 
Hon.  Truman  Smith,  his  nephew,  with  whom  you  are  all  so  well  ac- 
quainted :  less  tall  than  he,  but  of  rather  fuller  habit.     His  face  was 
not  only  the  index  of  high  capacity  and  solid  judgment,  but  uncom- 
monly handsome ;  his  hair  was  dark  and  thin,  though  not  to  baldness, 
except  on  the  fore  part  of  the  head,  and  was  very  slightly  sprinkled 
with  gray.     His  fine,  dark  eyes,  were  remarkably  pleasing  and  gentle 
in  ordinarv  intercourse,  but  very  variable,  always  kindling  when  high- 
ly excitedin  debate,  they  became  almost  oppressive.     His  voice  was 
excellent,  being  both  powerful  and  harmonious,  and  never  broke  un- 
der any  exertion  of  its  capacity.     His  manner  was  very  ardent  and 
the  seeming  dictate  of  a  strong  conviction  of  the  justice  of  his  cause ; 
and  his  gestures  were  the  natural  expression  of  such  a  conviction. 
Mr.  Smith's  style  was  pure  and  genuine  Saxon,  with  no  attempt  at 
classic  ornament  or  allusion.     His  train  of  reasoning  was  lucid  and 
direct,  and  evincive  of  the  fact  that  the  whole  of  it  was  like  a  map 
spread  out  in  his  mind's  eye  from  the  beginning.     His  integrity  was 
alwavs   felt  and   dreaded  by  his   opponent.     He  spoke   with   much 
fluency,  but  with  no  undue  rapidity ;  he  never  hesitated  for  or  hag- 
glcd  at  a  word,  nor  did  he  ever  tire  his  audience  with  undue  prolixity, 
or  omit  to  do  full  justice  to  his  case  for  fear  of  tiring  them ;  and  in- 
deed there  was  little  danger  of  it.     Though  certainly  a  very  fine 
speaker,   he  never  achieved  or  aspired  to  those   strains  of  almost 


BOARDMAX  S  SKETCHES  5/ 

superhuman  eloquence  with  which  his  old  master  Reeve,  sometimes 
electrified  and  astonished  his  audience,  and  yet,  in  ordinary  cases, 
he  was  the  most  correct  speaker  of  the  two — though  Judge  Reeve 
was,  and  he  was  not.  a  scholar.  Mr.  Smith,  though  quite  unassum- 
ing, and  often  receding  in  common  intercourse  and  conversation,  was, 
when  heated  in  argument,  it  must  be  confessed,  often  overbearing  to 
the  adverse  part\-.  and.  not  only  them,  but  to  their  counsel.  Upon 
all  other  occasions,  he  appeared  to  be.  and  I  believe  was.  a  very  kind 
hearted,  agreeable  and  pleasant  man.  To  me,  he  always  so  appeared, 
and  I  have  been  much  in  his  company. 

"Mr.  Smith  came  early  into  public  life,  and  was  frequently  elect- 
ed to  the  General  Assembly  from  Woodbury.  In  1795.  he  was  elect- 
ed a  member  of  the  fourth  Congress ;  and  in  1797.  he  was  chosen  to 
the  fifth  Congress;  but  declined  further  election.  In  May.  1799.  he 
was  made  an  assistant,  and  was  re-elected  for  the  five  following 
years,  when  he  resigned  his  seat  at  that  board  in  consequence  of  the 
passage  of  the  act  in  1803.  prohibiting  the  members  of  the  then  Su- 
preme Court  of  Errors  from  practicing  before  the  Court.  He  re- 
mained in  full  practice  at  the  bar  until  October,  1806.  when  he  was 
elected  a  judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  and  continued  to  fill  that  office 
until  May.  1819,  when  the  judiciary  establishment  of  that  year  went 
into  operation;  from  which  time  lie  remained  in  private  life  until 
his  death. 

"In  every  public  station  in  which  ^Ir.  Smith  was  placed,  he  dis- 
tinguished himself.  He  did  so  in  Congress,  at  a  time  when  our  rep- 
resentation was  as  able,  perhaps,  as  it  ever  has  been,  and  when  the 
character  of  the  house  to  which  he  belonged  was  far  higher  than  it 
now  is.  In  the  Superior  Court  he  was  certainly  very  greatly  respect- 
ed and  admired,  as  an  able  and  perfectly  upright  judge. 

"In  private  life  his  name  was  free  from  reproach.  A  strictly 
honest  and  pure  life,  free  from  any  of  those  little  blemishes  which 
often  mar  the  fame  of  distinguished  men,  may.  I  think,  be  fairly 
claimed  by  his  biographer  to  be  his  due.  As  a  husband,  a  parent,  a 
friend,  a  neighbor,  a  moralist  and  a  christian.  I  believe  few  have  left 
a  more  faultless  name." 


XOAH  BENXET  BEX-^EDICT. 

In  further  compliance  with  your  late  request,  I  now  place  at  your 
disposal  some  account  of  the  life,  character  and  standing  of  another 
highly  esteemed  member  of  the  Litchfield  County  Bar. 

The  Hon.  Xoah  Bennet  Benedict  was  a  native  of  Woodbury,  in 
which  he  resided  during  his  whole  life.  He  was  the  son  of  the  Rev. 
Noah  Benedict,  long  the  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church 
in  that  town.     Mr.  Benedict's  earlv  school  education  must  have  been 


58  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH   AND   BAR 

correct  and  good,  as  its  fruits  invariably  showed  itself  in  after  life. 
He  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  September,  1788,  when  a  little  short 
of  eighteen  years  of  age.  His  legal  studies  commenced  soon  after  his 
graduation,  which  were,  I  believe,  pursued  principally,  if  not  wholly, 
in  the  ottice  of  his  brother-in-law,  Xathaniel  Smith,  afterwards  so 
highly  distinguished  as  a  jurist,  which  was  near  the  residence  of  Mr. 
Benedict's  father.  As  soon  as  he  arrived  to  lawful  age  Mr.  Benedict 
came  to  the  Bar,  and  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  to  wit :  about 
thirty-nine  years,  it  is  believed  he  never  failed  to  attend  every  regular 
session  of  the  Courts  holden  at  Litchfield  ;  and  though  he  never  habit- 
ually attended  Courts  in  other  counties,  he  occasionally  did  so  for  the 
purpose  of  arguing  a  particular  case.  During  the  long  course  of  his 
practice  Mr.  Benedict  had  an  ample  share  of  business,  and  for  the 
latter  half  of  that  period,  he  was,  especially  in  the  Superior  Court,  the 
leading  advocate,  on  one  side  or  the  other,  in  most  of  the  trials  either 
to  the  court  or  to  the  jury.  His  management  of  a  trial  was  discreet, 
his  argument  sound,  sensible,  and  being  aided  by  the  well  known  and 
generally  esteemed  integrity  of  his  character,  had  their  due  efifect. 
He  never  attempted  to  play  the  orator  or  to  attract  attention  by  fine 
turned  periods,  but  contented  himself  with  plain  reasoning,  of  which 
he  was  no  indifferent  master. 

At  a  very  early  period  Mr.  Benedict  was  a  member  of  the  legisla- 
ture. But  the  political  majority  of  the  voters  in  Woodbury  becom- 
ing about  this  time  and  for  long  afterwards  decidedly  democratic, 
proved  an  effectual  bar  to  his  political  promotion,  as  far  as  depended 
upon  that  town,  but  by  the  vote  of  the  State  at  large  he  was  elected 
in  1813  one  of  the  twelve  assistants,  (as  they  were  then  styled,  who 
composed  the  Upper  House  of  the  assembly),  and  was  re-elected  the 
two  following  years;  but  in  the  year  1818  an  entire  political  revolu- 
tion took  place  in  Connecticut,  and  Mr.  Benedict  shared  the  fate  of 
almost  every  one  who  held  any  post  of  dignity  or  profit  depending 
upon  the  public  suffrage  at  large  in  the  State.  He  was  subsequently 
many  years  later  elected  once  more  to  the  Lower  House.  He  was 
also  for  several  vears  Judge  of  Probate  for  the  District  of  Woodbury, 
an  appointment  then  depending  upon  the  legislature.  Mr.  Benedict 
was  twice  married,  but  left  no  living  issue.  He  died  in  June  or  July 
1 83 1,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  or  in  his  sixtieth  year. 

In  private  life  Mr.  Benedict  was  entirely  unassuming,  and  a  very 
pleasing  companion  to  all  who  could  relish  purity  of  moral  character 
and  conduct,  which  his  whole  life  was  an  eminent  example:  his  feel- 
ings were  peculiarly  sensitive  and  delicate  ;  a  loose  or  profane  expres- 
sion never  escaped  his  lips,  and  indeed  so  fastidious  was  he  in  respect 
to  the  former,  that  it  used  to  be  a  matter  of  amusement  with  his  less 
scrupulous  associates  in  jocose  conversation,  to  tease  his  feminine 
delicacy  upon  such  subjects.  Though  when  alone  and  unoccupied 
he  had  a  propensity  to  indulge  in  somewhat  gloomy  reflections,  yet 
he  was  not  averse  to  participate  in  facetious  conversation  wlu-n  due 


Noah  Bexxet  Bexedict 
From  an  old  Painting. 


BOARDMAX'S  SKETCHES  59 

delicacy  was  observed.     He  had  a  profound  respect  for  religion  and 
was  in  all  respects  a  good,  a  very  good  man. 

Mr.  Benedict  was  of  somewhat  less  than  midling-  size,  of  a  medi- 
um complexion,  but  his  eyes  and  hair  rather  dark. 


JAMES  GOULD. 


In  compliance,  in  part,  with  a  request  recently  received  from  you, 
I  now  send  you  a  brief  and  imperfect  sketch  of  the  literary  and  pro- 
fessional character,  standing  and  reputation  of  the  Hon.  James  Gould, 
who  for  a  very  considerable  period  of  time  contributed  much  to  the 
fame  of  the  County  and  State  for  legal  science,  by  his  talents  as  an 
advocate  and  especially  as  an  instructor  and  as  a  judge  of  the  Supe- 
rior Court ;  with  some  account  of  his  person  and  family.  Mr.  G<ould 
the  son  of  Dr.  William  Gould,  an  eminent  physician,  was  born  at 
Branford  in  this  State  in  the  year  1770.  The  goodness  of  his  com- 
mon school  education  is  inferable  from  the  perfect  accuracy  of  it, 
which  showed  itself  in  all  he  did  or  said  in  after  life.  He  graduated 
when  a  little  over  twenty-one.  at  Yale  College,  in  September,  1791. 
with  distinguished  honor  in  a  class  distinguished  for  talents. 

The  year  next  following  his  collegiate  course  he  spent  in  Balti- 
more as  a  teacher.  He  then  returned  to  Xew  Haven  and  commenced 
the  study  of  law  with  Judge  Chauncey  :  and  in  September  of  that 
year  he  was  chosen  a  tutor  in  Yale  College,  in  which  office  he  contin- 
ued two  years.  He  then  joined  the  Law  School  of  Mr.  Reeve  at 
Litchfield  and  was  soon  after  admitted  to  the  Bar.  Immediately  af- 
ter his  admission  to  the  Bar  he  opened  an  office  for  i)ractice  in  that 
town,  where  he  residetl  during  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

On  his  first  appearance  as  an  advocate  he  evinced  such  an  ap- 
parent maturity  of  intellect,  such  a  self-possession,  such  command  of 
his  thoughts  and  of  the  language  appropriate  to  their  expression,  that 
he  was  marked  out  as  a  successful  aspirant  for  forensic  eminence. 
His  progress  in  the  acquisition  of  professional  business  was  steady 
and  rapid. 

Fortunate  circumstances  concurring  a  few  years  before  his  choice 
of  Litchfield  as  a  field  of  his  professional  labors,  in  the  removal  by 
promotion  of  two  very  distinguished  practitioners  at  the  Bar,  opened 
the  way  to  such  a  choice,  and  by  like  good  fortune  a  similar  event  re- 
moved one  of  the  two  onlv  remainingf  obstructions  in  that  town  to  his 
full  share  in  the  best  business  as  an  advocate,  the  only  business  to 
which  he  aspired.  As  a  reasoner  Air.  Gould  was  forcible,  lucid  and 
logical :  as  a  speaker  his  voice  was  very  pleasant  and  his  language 
pure,  clear  and  always  appropriate.  He  never  aspired  to  high  strains 
of  impassioned  eloquence,  and  rarely,  if  ever,  addressed  himself  to  the 
passions  of  the  Court  and  Jury,  but  to  their  understanding  only,  and 


6o  LITCHFIKLD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

was  a  very  able,  pleasing  and  successful  advocate.  His  argument  was 
a  fair  map  of  the  case,  and  one  sometimes  engaged  against  him,  but 
feeling  his  superiority,  observed,  that  he  had  rather  have  Gould 
against  him  in  a  case,  than  any  other  of  any  where  equal  powers, 
because  he  could  perfectly  understand  his  argument,  ancl  if  suscepti- 
ble of  an  answer  could  know  how  to  apply  it  In  his  practice  at  the 
Bar  he  was  always  perfectly  fair  and  honorable.  Within  some  two  or 
three  years  after  Mr.  Gould  commenced  practice,  Mr.  Reeve,  the 
founder  and  until  that  time  the  sole  instructor  of  the  Litchfield  Law 
School,  accepted  a  seat  u^xdu  the  bench  of  the  Superior  Court.  This 
Court  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  give  up  the  school,  or  to  associate 
some  one  with  him  in  its  management,  and  to  deliver  lectures  in  his 
absence  upon  the  circuits.  The  Judge  selected  Mr.  Gould  as  that 
associate;  and  for  a  number  of  years  they  jointly  conducted  and  re- 
ceived the  pupils  of  the  School :  and  on  the  final  retiring  of  Judge 
Reeve  from  any  participation  in  the  instruction  of  the  School,  Mr. 
Gould  became  its  sole  instructor  and  so  continued  until  elevated  to 
the  bench  of  the  Superior  Court  in  the  spring  of  1816,  when  he  in 
turn  had  to  have  recourse  to  temporary  aid  for  the  short  time  he  re- 
mained on  the  bench.  But  a  thorough  political  Revolution  having 
taken  place  in  this  State,  and  a  new  constitution  formed  which  entire- 
ly new  modeled  the  courts  of  law,  Mr.  Gould  took  no  further  share 
in  public  employments :  and  his  health  being  greatly  impaired,  he 
never  resumed  practice  at  the  Bar,  but  confined  himself  wholly  to  his 
School  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  as  far  as  severe  infirmities 
would  permit.  He  died,  as  appears  bv  the  College  catalogue,  in 
1838. 

in  person  Mr.  Gould  was  very  handsome.  Of  about  medium 
heighth,  or  perhaps  a  little  over ;  but  rather  less  in  body  and  limbs 
than  medium  size.  His  complexion  fair,  with  fine  dark  eyes  and 
beautiful  l)rown  hair  ;  all  his  features  gootl  and  in  connection  indica- 
tive of  much  intelligence  and  good  nature,  and  his  form  for  symmetry 
and  gracefulness  could  hardly  have  been  mended ;  and  in  all  respects, 
in  body,  mind  and  education,  he  may  be  fairly  styled  a  finished  man. 
In  private  and  social  intercourse  he  was  highly  pleasing,  facetious 
and  witty. 

Soon  after  his  settlement  in  Litchfield  he  married  the  eldest 
daughter  of  the  Hon.  Uriah  Tracy,  so  well  known  for  his  long  and 
distinguished  service  in  the  councils  of  the  state  and  nation. 

Mrs.  Gould  in  person  and  mind  was  a  fit  wife  for  such  a  husljand, 
and  partook  with  him  in  the  happiness  of  raising  a  very  numerous 
and  promising  family  of  children. 

Judge  Gould  wrote  and  published  a  volume  of  Pleadings,  which 
together  with  his  fame  as  an  instructor,  gave  him  a  distinguished 
name  among  the  eminent  jurists  of  the  country. 


boardman's  sketches  6i 


ASA    BACON 


Again  in  compliance  with  your  later  request  for  further  sketches 
of  the  lives  and  profesional  standing  of  the  former  members  of  the 
Litchfield  County  Bar  I  transmit  you  a  name  which,  though  not  dec- 
orated by  the  civic  honors  annexed  to  some  of  them.  I  think  highly 
worthy  of  a  place  in  the  series. 

Asa  Bacon,  the  son  of  a  very  respectable  and  somewhat  opulent 
farmer  of  Canterbury  in  this  State,  was  born  there  on  the  8th  day  of 
February.  i/Ji.     His  early  school  and  classical  education  was  had 
in  that  and  neighboring  towns  in  Windham  County  so  far  as  was 
necessary  to  a  preparation  for  entering  Yale  College,  which  he  did 
in  September.  1789  ;  and  during  his  collegiate  course,  sustained  a  very 
prominent  standing  in  his  class  ;  and  b\  his  instructor  and  class-mates 
was  marked  out  as  one  who  would  make  a  distinguished  figure  in  the 
profession  in  which  his  talents  and  turn  of  mind  plainly  indicated 
would  be  his  choice.     Immediately  after  his  graduation  in  September, 
1793,  he  entered  the  otfice  of  Gen.  Cleaveland  in  his  native  town  as  a 
Law-student,  and  there  remained  about  six  months  and  then  joined 
the  Law  school  at  Litchfield,  at  that  time,  and  for  long  before,  under 
the  sole  instruction  of  Tapping  Reeve.  Esq.,  afterwards  Judge  Reeve, 
in  which  he  remained  until  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  September.  1795. 
Soon  after  which,  without  consulting  anybody  or  taking  a  single  let- 
ter of  which  he  might  for  asking  obtained  any  quantit}'  of  the  best 
sort,  with  characteristic  boldness  and  love  of  adventure  in  youth,  he 
left  Connecticut   for  Mrginia   with  a  determination  of  establishing 
himself  in  the  practice  of  law  in  the  latter  state :  an  attempt,  it  is  be- 
lieved never  before  made  by  any  one  from  Connecticut.     Tn  order  to 
the  accomplishment  of  which  object,  he  found  on  arrival  in  Mrginia 
that  he  had  got  to  obtain  a  license  from  a  majority  of  the  Judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court  in  that  state,  and  that  too  by  visiting  them  at  their 
respective  residences  :  for  they  were  not  in  the  practice  of  examining 
and  licensing  candidates  during  the  session  of  the  court.     This  sub- 
jected him  to  the  trouble  and  expense  of  traveling  over  a  great  part 
of  the  state ;  and  this  being  accomplished,  he  determined  to  fix  him- 
self at  Leesburg.  the  capital  of  Loudon  county,  and  he  accordingly 
opened  an  office  for  practice  there ;  and  being  aided  by  a  fine  and 
imposing  personal  appearance  and  promptness  in  manners,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  a  fair  and  encouraging  portion  of  the  business, 
and  there  remained  for  nearly  three  years,  when,  on  returning  to 
Connecticut  to  visit  his  relations,  he  found  the  prospects  of  profes- 
sional business  in  his  native  county  to  be  such  as,  in  connection  with 
a  natural  preference  for  Connecticut  society  to  that  of  \'irginia,  to 
induce  him  to  renounce  his  connection  with  his  new  formed  estab- 
lishment and  open  an  office  in  his  native  town,  and  this  he  did  not 
onlv  with  such  success  as  speedily  to  secure  him  a  fair  professional 
business,  but  also  to  induce  four  young  gentlemen  to  enter  his  otfice 


62  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH  AND   BAR 

for  legal  instruction,  upon  a  plan  which  he  adopted ;  three  of  whom 
were  from  Massachusetts,  and  one  a  member  of  Congress  from  the 
state  of  Xew  York. 

After  a  prosperous  practice  of  over  seven  years  in  Windham 
County,  he  received  an  invitation  from  the  Hon.  John  Allen,  then  at 
the  head  of  practice  in  the  larger  county  of  Litchfield,  to  remove 
there  and  become  his  partner  in  business.  This  he  accepted,  and 
was  probably  in  a  measure  induced  so  to  do  from  the  prospect  that 
Mr.  Allen  w^ould.  on  account  of  declining  health,  wholly  retire  from 
the  Bar  at  no  very  distant  period :  and  this  in  fact  happened  at  a 
time  earlier  than  was  desirable.  By  means  of  his  connection  with 
Mr.  Allen,  and  of  a  peculiar  faculty  of  his  own,  Mr.  Bacon  soon 
obtained  an  ample  and  satisfactory  share  of  the  business  done  at  the 
Litchfield  County  Bar,  and  by  his  faithfulness  and  zeal  in  the  man- 
agement of  it  he  retained  it  for  many  years  to  his  great  satisfaction, 
for  he  was  very  fond  of  his  profession.  Xo  man  more  thoroughly 
identified  himself  with  the  interests  of  his  client,  insomuch  that  he 
could  hardly  bring  himself  to  doubt  of  the  justice  of  his  cause,  how- 
ever he  might  of  the  legal  means  of  obtaining  it;  hence  his  utmost 
exertions  were  sure  to  be  put  forth  for  the  attainment  of  it.  In  un- 
tiring industry  in  the  preparation  of  a  cause  for  trial  no  man  ex- 
celled him.  He  was  an  able,  and  when  the  nature  of  the  case  al- 
lowed of  it.  an  eloquent  advocate.  LIntil  some  sixty  years  old  he 
was  in  full  practice,  almost  never  being  in  any  degree  diverted  from 
it  bv  political  aspirations.  But  repeated  pneumoniae  attacks  of  a 
threatening  nature  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  1832  admonished  him 
of  the  danger  of  much  public  speaking,  and  induced  him  to  retire 
from  the  Bar  as  soon  as  it  could  conveniently  be  done.  While  in 
practice,  his  untiring  diligence  in  the  preparation  of  his  causes  for 
trial,  the  learning,  wit  and  force  of  reasoning  was  so  satisfactory 
to  his  numerous  clients,  that  it  was  not  remembered  that  any  one 
who  once  employed  him  ever  forsook  him  when  in  after  time  he  had 
occasion  for  legal  advice. 

After  the  close  of  his  practice  of  law.  and  indeed  long  before 
that  event,  Mr.  Bacon  paid  much  attention  to  pecuniary  afifairs,  and 
his  skill  and  judgment  in  the  management,  led  to  his  appoinment 
as  president  of  the  branch  of  the  Phcienix  Bank  located  at  Litchfield, 
which  he  held  for  a  number  of  years.  But  his  cautious  policy  in  the 
management  of  it  proved  unsatisfactory  to  some  of  the  stockholders, 
but  more  particularly  with  the  managers  at  head  quarters. 

As  a  man.  a  mere  private  individual,  Mr.  Bacon  will  be  agreed 
by  all  who  ever  knew  him  to  have  been  a  very  peculiar  man.  both  in 
appearance  and  in  inanner.  He  was  full  six  feet  two  inches  high ; 
well  formed  for  appearance ;  neither  too  fleshy  nor  too  spare ;  and 
his  inexhaustible  fund  of  pleasant  wit,  judiciously  used,  made  him 
an  agreeable  companion  to  both  sexes  and  all  ages :  and  having  in 
himself  an  uncommon  elasticity  of  spirits  he  was  fitted  to  enjoy  life 


150ard]vi.an's  sketches  63 

and  to  impart  to  others  its  enjoyment  in  an  eminent  degree.  On 
many  acconnts,  and  indeed  on  most  accounts,  Mr.  Bacon  may  be 
said  to  be  a  fortunate  man,  but  on  others,  had  it  not  been  for  his 
pecuHar  buoyancy  of  spirits,  a  very  unfortunate  man. 

In  ]\larcli.  1807,  he  married  Miss  Lucretia  Champion  the  only 
daughter  of  the  Hon.  Epaphroditus  Champion,  of  East  Haddam,  who 
still  survives  him  :  and  never  was  a  man  through  a  long  married  life 
of  half  a  centur_\ ,  more  happ}'  in  the  conjugal  connection.  This  mar- 
riage was  blessed  by  the  birth  of  three  sons  of  uncommon  promise, 
but  all  of  them  were  cut  down  in  early  manhood :  not,  however,  until 
each  had  given  decided  proof  of  natural  and  acquired  capacity. 
Three  daughters  were  also  the  fruit  of  that  mariage,  but  all  died  in 
early  infancy. 

Quite  a  number  of  years  since.  Mr.  Bacon  disposed  of  his  proper- 
ty in  Litchfield  and  removed  to  New  Haven,  where  he  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  his  long  and  useful  life,  and  died  in  the  full  possession  of 
his  mental  faculties  when  but  two  days  short  of  eighty-six  years  of 
age.  Xo  one  ever  questioned  his  integrity.  He  was  a  professor 
of  religion,  and  is  believed  to  have  lived  in  accordance  with  his  pro- 
fession. He  died  in  the  possession  of  an  ample  estate,  in  a  great 
degree  the  fruit  of  his  discreet  management,  and  out  of  which,  it  is 
but  justice  to  his  memory  to  state,  he  made  a  donation  to  Yale  Col- 
lege of  ten  thousand  dollars. 


ELISHA    STKKI.IXC. 

Gen.  Elisha  Sterling  of  Salisbur}-,  who  was  for  a  long  time  a 
very  respectable  member  of  the  Litchfield  County  liar,  was  a  native 
of  Lyme  in  this  State,  where  he  received  his  training  and  early  edu- 
cation, until  he  became  a  member  of  Yale  College,  of  the  class  which 
graduated  in  September,  1787;  and  that  he  sustained  a  good  stand- 
ing in  it  is  evinced  by  his  having  an  honorary  share  in  its  commence- 
ment exercises.  Immediately  after  his  graduation  he  assumed  the 
charge  of  an  academy,  then  recently  established  in  Sharon ;  and 
during  the  two  years  while  it  was  under  his  management  and  tu- 
ition, it  became  very  thoroughly  established  and  very  extensively 
and  popularly  known.  While  at  the  head  of  the  academy  he  pursued 
the  study  of  Law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1789  or  1790,  and 
immediately  opened  an  office  for  the  practice  of  his  profession  in 
Salisburv,  where  he  continued  to  reside  duringf  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  He  was  very  fortunate  in  his  place  of  settlement,  and  soon 
found  himself  engaged  in  lucrative  practice,  which  he  pursued  with 
much  industry  for  a  long  time ;  and  it  is  believed  that  very  few 
lawyers  have  by  the  mere  practice  of  their  profession  in  Connecti- 
cut acquired  a  larger  property  than  he  did.     He  was  at  an  early 


64  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH   AND    BAR 

period  by  the  County  Court  appointed  Attorney  for  the  State  in  that 
County,  and  by  them  ( to  wlioni  alone  the  riu^lit  of  that  appointment 
then  pertained,)  annually  reappointed  for  many  years,  and  until  a 
political  change  in  a  majority  of  that  Court  led  to  a  change  in  the 
attorneyship.  The  propriety  of  his  manag'ement  as  a  public  prose- 
cutor was  never  questioned  even  by  his  political  opponents.  As  a 
mere  advocate  he  did  not  stand  at  the  head  of  such  practice,  but 
did  a  respectable  share  of  it,  and  stood  high  in  the  secondary  rank; 
and  in  the  entire  amount  of  business,  in  point  of  profit,  few  ecjualed, 
and  perhaps  none  surpassed  him.  In  addition  to  the  office  of  State's 
Attorney,  he  for  a  long  time  held  the  office  of  Judge  of  Probate  for 
the  district  of  Sharon — an  office  then  depending  upon  the  annual 
appointment  of  the  legislature,  and  until,  for  a  like  cause  above 
mentioned,  he  was  required  to  give  place  to  another,  of  different 
political  principles  from  his  own  ;  and  the  latter  office  he  held  two 
or  three  years  after  he  ceased  to  be,  of  the  then,  healthy  political 
faith.  He  was  very  often  a  representative  to  the  General  Assembly 
from  Salisbury  when  the  political  standing  of  the  town  would  allow 
of  such  a  choice,  and  was  a  major-general  of  the  militia.  At  a 
somewdiat  earlier  period  he  married  a  daughter  of  the  Hon.  John 
Canfield,  deceased,  of  Sharon,  who  for  a  long  time  was  a  distin- 
guished member  of  the  Bar  of  Litchfield  County  in  former  times ; 
and  by  that  marriage  he  became  the  father  of  a  somewhat  numerous 
family,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  sons.  They  w^ere  all  young  men  of 
promise,  and  on  entering  into  business  were  well  endowed  by  their 
father,  and  it  is  believed  were  respectable  and  prosperous  in  their 
several  vocations.  Gen.  Sterling  somewhat  late  in  life  married  the 
widow  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Elliott,  who  survived  hiuL  Through 
life  Gen.  Sterling  enjoyed  a  good  state  of  health,  and  died  when 
over  seventy  years  of  age,  in  the  year  1836,  of  a  sudden  illness  oc- 
casioned by  a  slight  wound  in  the  leg,  too  much  neglected.  He  was 
above  meclium  size,  of  a  light  complexion  and  good  personal  ap- 
pearance, and  his  moral  and  religious  habits  unimj^eachable. 


JABEZ    W.     HUNTINGTON. 

In  compliance  with  former  requests  and  of  a  recent  intimation 
of  my  own,  I  now  transmit  you  a  brief  sketch  of  the  life  and  char- 
acter of  the  Hon.  Jabez  W.  Huntington,  son  of  the  late  Gen. 
Zachariah  Huntington  of  Norwich,  and  grandson  of  the  Hon.  Jabez 
Huntington  of  that  place,  the  assistant  and  associate  of  the  first  Gov. 
Trumbull,  who  was  born  in  Norwich  in  the  year  1787  or  1788.  He 
received  his  early  training  and  instruction  in  his  native  town,  which 
after  times  evinced  to  be  accurate  and  good.  He  became  a  member 
of  Yale  College  in  September,    1802  and  graduated  in  September, 


boardman's  sketches  65 

1806.  with  the  reputation  of  a  good  scholar.  Soon  after  his  gradua- 
tion he  became  a  teacher  in  an  academic  school  under  the  govern- 
ment of  its  founder.  Esquire  Morris  of  Litchfield  South  Farms,  as 
then  called,  now  the  town  of  Morris,  named  after  the  founder  of 
said  school.  After  about  a  year  thus  employed,  ]Mr.  Huntington 
entered  Judge  Reeve's  Law  School,  in  which  he  continued  a  diligent 
student  until  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  Litchfield  County,  of  which  he 
soon  showed  himself  to  be  a  worthy  member,  and  in  due  time  a 
distinguished  one  ;  he  having  commenced  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession in  Litchfield,  and  there  continued  it,  until  its  final  termina- 
tion bv  an  office  conferred  upon  him  incompatible  with  its  further 
pursuit.  In  practice,  his  whole  aim  and  ambition  was  to  become 
an  advocate,  and  had  no  desire  to  obtain  any  share  of  collecting 
business,  though  in  many  hands  not  less  lucrative;  and  as  he  was 
always  readv  to  aid  the  less  ambitious  of  speaking,  he  early  acquired 
a  verv  considerable  sliare  of  the  portion  of  practice  of  which  he  was 
ambitious  and  which  was  improving  to  him.  His  forte  as  an  advo- 
cate was  in  detecting  error  in  declarations  and  other  parts  of  plead- 
ings, and  in  a  lucid  manner  of  pointing  them  out.  L^pon  the  whole 
he  was  as  an  advocate  clear  and  accurate,  rather  than  peculiar  for 
the  gracefulness  of  manner  or  refinement  of  diction,  though  his 
manner  was  by  no  nieans  disgusting,  and  his  language  entirely  free 
from  any  approach  to  vulgarity.  His  manners  were  pleasing  and 
popular,  and  he  repeatedly  rejiresented  Litchfield  in  the  General 
Assembly  and  distinguished  himself  there.  He  was  elected  to  the 
2 1  St  Congress,  and  re-elected  to  the  22d  and  23d  Congress  :  and  near 
the  expiration  of  the  last  of  his  Congressional  career  he  was  chosen 
a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  and  held  that  office  until  1840. 
wlien  being  chosen  a  senator  of  the  United  States  he  resigned  the 
Judgeship  and  accepted  the  latter  appointment,  and  continued  to 
hold  it  by  virtue  of  a  second  appointment  until  his  death  in  1847. 
In  all  which  stations  he  performed  the  duties  thereof  with  honor  to 
himself  and  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  public.  His  moral  char- 
acter was  irreproachable ;  a  professor  of  religion  and  an  observer  of 
its  precepts.  Late  in  life  he  was  married,  but  it  is  believed  left  no 
issue.  Soon  after  election  to  Congress  he  removed  to  his  native 
town  and  died  there. 


PillNEAS     MIXER. 


Phineas  Miner,  a  very  respectable  and  somewhat  eminent  niem- 
ber  of  the  Litchfield  County  Bar.  was  a  native  of  Winchester  in  that 
county,  and  there,  and  in  that  region,  as  far  as  by  the  writer  hereof 
known,  received  his  entire  training  and  education  in  all  respects.  At 
an  earlv  period  in  life  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  the  place 


66  LlTCHt'lELD   COUNTY   BENCH   AND   BAR 

of  his  birth,  in  the  society  of  Winsted,  as  is  believed,  a  place  of  a 
great  deal  of  active  manufacturing-  business  and  furnishing  an  ample 
share  of  emplo}inent  for  gentlemen  of  the  legal  profession,  of  which 
Mr.  Miner  soon  acquired  an  ample  share,  and  at  no  distant  period, 
an  engrossing  one.  with  which  he  appeared  in  court  from  term  to 
term  until  he  felt  warranted  in  the  expectation  of  drawing  after  him 
an  engagement  in  all  the  disputable  cases  from  that  fruitful  quarter, 
when  he  removed  to  Litchfield  and  was  much  employed  as  an  advo- 
cate for  a  number  of  years,  and  until  his  health  rather  prematurely 
failed,  and  he  became  the  victim  of  great  mental  and  bodily  suffer- 
ing, until  relieved  by  death  before  reaching  the  ordinary  period  at 
which  old  age  begins  to  make  its  eft'ects  much  perceptible  in  the  hu- 
man frame.  As  an  advocate  Mr.  Miner  was  ardent,  impassioned 
and  tiuent,  but  in  his  apparent  great  ambition  to  be  eloquent  he 
often  made  use  of  figures  of  speech  which  a  more  chastened  and 
correct  training  in  youth  would  have  taught  him  to  avoid,  and  less 
wounding  to  an  ear  of  taste,  but  the  fault  apparent  to  all,  was  the 
extreme  prolixity  of  his  arguments  ;  but  these  faults  notwithstand- 
ing, Mr.  Miner  was  a  respectable  and  able  advocate. 

Before  his  removal  to  Litchfield  Mr.  Miner  was  an  early  and 
frequent  member  of  the  legislature  from  his  native  town  and  after 
his  removal  there,  a  member  of  the  state  senate  for  the  fifteenth 
district,  and  was  also  elected  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the  second  session 
of  the  twenty-third  Congress. 

Mr.  Miner  was  twice  married,  but  it  is  believed,  left  no  issue, 
but  of  this  the  writer  is  uncertain.  He  led  a  strictly  moral  life  and 
was  justly  esteemed  a  good  man. 


LEMAN    CHURCH. 


One  more  attempt  to  comply  with  your  repeated  requests.  Le- 
man  Church,  a  late  member  of  the  Litchfield  County  Bar,  was  a  na- 
tive of  Salisbury  in  this  county,  a  son  of  an  opulent  farmer  of  that 
town,  and  in  it,  it  is  supposed,  he  received  his  education,  both 
scholastic  and  professional :  the  latter  in  the  office  of  his  half- 
brother,  Samuel  Church,  afterwards  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court, 
and  finally  Chief  Justice  of  the  same,  and  after  his  admission  to  the 
bar  he  opened  an' office  in  North  Canaan,  where  he  resided  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life.  Mr.  Church  was  successful  in  acquiring 
at  an  early  ])eriod  a  promising  share  of  professional  business,  which 
steadily  increased,  until  by  the  middle  of  professional  life  he  occu- 
pied a  stand  among  the  leading  advocates  at  the  bar ;  and  towards 
the  close  of  life  there  was  scarce  a  cause,  especially  in  the  higher 
Courts,  of  considerable  importance  discussed,  in  which  he  was  not 
engaged. 


boakdman's  sketches  67 

In  September.  1833.  ^^^-  Church  was  appointed  by  the  Court, 
State's  Attorney,  as  successor  to  his  brother  Samuel,  on  the  latter's 
elevation  to  the  bench  of  the  Superior  Court,  and  held  that  office  by 
annual  re-appointments  until  September  term,  1838,  when  by  a  politi- 
cal chang'e  in  the  court  he  was  required  to  yield  the  place  to  another ; 
it  is  believed,  however,  that  he  afterwards  for  a  time,  re-occupied 
that  place,  but  not  positively  recollected. 

As  a  speaker  he  was  cool,  unimpassioned  and  ingenious  ;  he  never 
attempted  to  affect  the  passions  of  those  he  addressed,  and  being- 
destitute  of  passion  himself,  was  consequently  incapable  of  moving 
the  passions  of  others ;  he  never  attempted  to  be  eloquent  or  made 
use  of  a  merely  ornate  expression,  his  object  in  speaking  was  effect, 
and  that  wholly  directed  to  his  cause  and  not  to  himself;  in  the  man- 
agement of  a  case  he  was  always  cool  and  self-possessed ;  no  sud- 
den and  unexpected  turn  in  the  progress  of  a  trial  disconcerted 
him,  or  appeared  to  be  unexpected  by  him  ;  no  collision  at  the  bar 
ever  appeared  to  aft'ect  his  temper  in  the  least.  With  such  a  tem- 
perament it  is  obvious  that  the  legal  profe:>sion.  was  of  all  the  pro- 
fessions, the  one  for  him,  and  that  in  which  he  was  calculated  to 
excel. 

Mr.  Church  was  always  entirely  regardless  of  personal  appear- 
ance and  dress;  he  was  very  small,  meager  and  ill  formed,  his  fea- 
tures quite  ordinary,  but  all  this  very  indifferent  appearance  was  res- 
cued from  inattention  by  a  most  remarkably  attractive  and  intelli- 
gent eye. 

Mr.  Church  was  frequentl\-  a  representative  to  the  Legislature 
from  Canaan,  and  never  failed  to  make  an  ini])ression  upon  that 
bodv ;  and  to  his  sagacious  management  is  attributable  the  preseva- 
tion  of  the  Housatonic  Railroad  from  ruin,  as  a  commissioner  there- 
on appointed  by  the  Legislature,  with  power,  together  with  his  as- 
sociate in  office,  Mr.  Pond,  to  sell  and  consequently  to  destroy  the 
road  which  seemed  to  be  a  favorite  object  with  them  for  a  time. 

Mr.  Church  died  in  the  midst  of  life  as  a  professional  man,  July 
1849.     ^  ^'i""  ^iii^W^'  to  state  the  particulars  of  his  family. 


i'ctigutick'a  3iifty  feats 


FIFTY  YEARS 


AT  THE 


LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BAR 


A  LECTURE 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BAR 


BY 


CHARLES  F.  SEDGWICK,  ESQ. 


1870. 


L. 


CHAS.    F.    SEDGWICK 


SEDGWICK'S  ADDRESS. 


Litchfield,  Feb.  9,  1870. 
Gex.  Sedgwick  : 

My  Dear  Sir — At  a  l)ar  meeting-  held  this  noon  die  following 
nesolntion  was  offered  b}-  E.  W.  Seymour  and  unanimously  adopted  : 

jriicrcas.  at  the  next  term  of  this  Court  Gen.  C.  F.  Sedgwick 
will  have  completed  a  fifty  years  connection  with  this  bar  as  a  re- 
spected member  thereof, 

Resolved.  That  he  be  invited  to  deliver  an  address  in  the  Court 
Room  at  such  time  next  term  as  may  be  convenient  to  him  u]>on  some 
subject  connected  with  his  long  professional  career. 

Resohi'ed.  That  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  extend  this 
invitation  to  the  General  and  to  make  arrangements  that  may  be 
necessary  in  case  the  invitation  be  accepted, 

(  ).  S.  Seymour.  J.  H.  Hubbard  and  Abijah  Catlin  were  appointed 
a  committee  for  this  purpose. 

It  gives  the  committee  great  pleasure  to  communicate  the  fore- 
going proceedings  to  you  and  we  hope  you  will  gratify  us  by  accept- 
ing the  invitation.  We  will  at  any  time  confer  with  you  upon  the 
subject  of  what  arrangements  should  be  made. 

Yours  truly,  O.  S.  Seymour. 

For  the  Committee. 

The  committee  of  the  Litchfield  County  Bar  have  received  the 
annexed  letter  from  General  Sedgwick  and  have  agreed  upon  Wed- 
nesday evening,  the  13th  of  A])ril.  for  hearing  the  commemoration 
discourse  at  the  Court  Room.  Members  of  the  I'ar  of  other  Courts 
and  the  ]niblic  generally  are  invited  to  attend. 

J.  H.  Hubbard, 

O.  S.  Seymour, 
Abijah    Catlin, 

Committee. 


Litchfield.  March  14.  1870. 


Sharon^  March   12.   1870. 


Judge  Sey.mour  : 

Dear  Sir — 1  received,  in  due  time,  yotirs.  written  in  behalf  of 
the  committee  of  the  Bar.  and  owe  you  an  aix>logy  for  not  giving 
it  an  earlier  answer.  The  truth  is  that  I  have  hesitated  to  give  an 
affirmative  response  from  a  feeling  of  incompetency  to  get  up  any 
thintr  which  would  be  of  anv  interest  to  mv  kind  friends  of  the  Bar 


72  LiTCHFlliLD   COUNTY  BEXCH   AND   BAR 

whose  polite  proceedings  you  communicate.  But  the  respect  which 
I  feel  for  them  combined  with  a  feeling  of  gratitude  for  the  past 
kindnesses  as  well  as  the  urgency  of  many  individuals  of  the  profes- 
sion here  as  well  as  in  other  counties  have  persuaded  me  to  make 
the  attempt  to  comply  with  their  wishes,  and  I  will  try  to  get  up  a 
commemoration  discourse  to  be  read  to  the  Bar  at  the  next  term  of 
the  Court.  As  Good  Friday  will  come  during  the  first  week  of  Court 
I  will  suggest  Wednesday  evening  of  that  week  for  the  hearing 
instead  of  Thursday,  but  in  this  I  will  conform  to  the  wishes  of  the 
committee.  If  they  should  fix  on  any  other  evening  please  notify 
me. 

Yours,  respectfully, 

C.  F.  Sedgwick. 

ADDRESS. 

The  statement  that  I  have  been  for  fifty  years  a  member  of  the 
bar  of  this  county,  admonishes  me  of  a  rapid  journey  across  the  stage 
of  life,  from  its  morning  to  its  evening.  Those  years  have  sped 
away,  and  they  have  embraced  a  large  portion  of  the  time  usually 
alloted  to  man  as  the  period  of  his  existence  here. 

"Large  space  are  they 
Of  man's  brief  life,  those  fifty  years;  they  join 
Its  ruddy  morning"  with  the  paler  light 
Of  its  declining  hours." 

They  have  swept  off  in  their  current  nearly  every  one  who  was 
active  in  the  proceedings  of  the  courts  of  tliis  county,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  that  period.  It  did  not  then  occur  to  me  to  consider 
the  question  whether  I  should  outlive  nearly  all  my  associates  at  the 
bar,  but  of  the  forty-four  members  who  were  then  in  active  practice 
here,  all  save  three,  and  they  are  not  now  in  practice,  have  preceded 
me  on  their  journey  to  the  grave.  Some  have  laid  their  bones  in 
distant  parts  of  the  country,  but  with  the  exception  above  named, 
all  have  gone  to  their  last  account. 

T  suppose  it  to  be  the  wish  of  the  bar.  as  it  has  been  intimated 
to  me,  that  I  should  say  something  of  those  who  were  active  in  con- 
ducting the  judicial  proceedings  in  this  County,  fifty  years  ago. 
This  will  imjily  a  notice  of  the  judges,  clerks  and  officers  of  the  court, 
as  well  as  the  legal  profession.  A  wide  field  is  open  before  me, 
and  I  fear  the  exploration  which  I  shall  give  it  will  be  of  very  little 
interest  to  my  brethren,  but  such  impressions  of  the  men  of  those 
times  as  remain  with  me.  I  will  endeavor  to  lav  before  them. 


RE-ORC.ANlZATK)N    OF    TIIR    COURTS. 


The  Courts  had  then  just  been  organized  under  the  present  Con- 
stitution  of   the    State.     Under   the   old   government,   the    Supreme 


SEDGWICK  S  ADDRESS  73 

Court  consisted  of  nine  judges,  and  they  were  elected  annually  by  the 
legislature.  Under  the  Constitution,  the  number  was  reduced  to 
five,  and  they  held  their  office  during-  good  behaviour,  or  until  they 
reached  the  age  of  seventy  years.  In  like  manner,  the  judges  of  the 
County  Courts  were  reduced  from  five  to  three.  Formerly  these 
judges  held  the  Superior  Courts,  but  under  the  Constitution,  they 
were  holden  by  one  judge.  The  old  Court  has  embodied  as  high  an 
order  of  judicial  talent  as  any  other  Court  in  any  of  the  States,  and 
when  the  appointment  of  the  judges  under  the  new  organization  was 
in  contemplation,  much  anxiety  was  felt  among  the  members  of  the 
legal  profession  lest  the  character  of  the  Court  should  deteriorate. 
Chief  Justice  Swift  was  very  popular  with  all  classes,  and  it  was 
thought  that  his  high  character  as  a  jurist,  and  his  spotless  charac- 
ter as  a  man,  would  render  it  pretty  certain  that  he  be  retained  at 
the  head  of  the  new  Court.  But  the  party  then  in  power,  known  in 
our  political  history  as  the  Toleration  party,  determined  t<i  make  an 
almost  entire  change  in  the  material  of  the  Court,  and  to  man  the 
bench  with  new  incumbents.  For  the  new  Chief  Justice,  they  select- 
ed the  Hon.  Stephen  Titus  Hosmer,  of  Middletown,  who  had  been 
a  member  of  the  old  Court  some  three  or  four  years,  and  who,  it  was 
claimed,  had  voted  the  ticket  of  the  party  at  the  next  preceding 
election.  It  was  laid  to  his  charge  that  he  had  done  so  with  the 
intent  of  thereby  obtaining  the  position  which  he  was  afterwards 
called  to  fill.  The  other  judges  were  John  T.  Peters,  Asa  Chai)man, 
Jeremiah  Gates  Brainard,  and  William  Bristol.  Judge  lirainard 
was  of  the  old  Court,  and  it  was  the  intention  of  the  riding  party  to 
put  James  Lanman  in  the  place ;  but  some  of  the  tolerationists  of 
New  London  County  did  not  believe  him  qualified  to  fill  it.  and 
refused  to  vote  for  him.  Judge  Brainard  was  of  the  same  county, 
and  the  federalists  naturally  rallied  upon  him  in  opposition  to  Lan- 
man, and  with  the  aid  of  dissentient  tolerationists,  l'>rainard  was 
elected.  He  was  the  only  old  federalist  on  the  bench,  till  Daggett 
came  on,  in   1826. 


CHIEF    JUSTICE    HOSIER. 

Stephen  Titus  Hosmer  was  a  lawyer  of  eminence  in  his  peculiar 
way.  He  had  no  very  high  standing  as  an  advocate,  but  as  a  lawyer, 
learned  in  elementary  principles  his  position  was  a  very  good  one. 
A  gentleman  who  had  heard  him,  told  me  that  his  manner  was  hard 
and  dry.  and  his  elocution  very  defective,  but  in  some  branches  of 
legal  science  he  had  few  superiors.  He  seemed  to  delight  in  ex- 
ploring ancient  paths  in  search  of  legal  principles,  and  in  getting 
up  old  legal  tracts  and  dissertations.  In  the  first  volume  of  Day's 
Reports,  there  is  a  note  of  forty  pages  of  fine  print,  containing  an 
opinion  of  Lord  Camden,  of  the  English  Court  of  Common   Pleas, 


74  I.ITCTTFIELD   COUXTV    BKXCTf    AND    BAR 

which  has  Iiardly  a  rival  in  judicial  learning-  or  eloquence.  ]\Ir.  Day 
informed  me  that  this  was  presented  him  in  manuscript  by  Mr.  Hos- 
mer,  there  being  then  no  printed  copy  of  it  on  this  side  of  the  At- 
lantic. He  was  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  old  Court  in  1815,  but  be- 
ing one  of  the  younger  judges,  it  never  fell  to  his  lot  to  preside  on 
the  trial  of  a  case,  until  his  accession  to  the  Chief  Justiceship.  His 
career,  on  the  whole,  was  very  successful,  both  at  nisi  priits,  and  on 
the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court.  His  api^rchension  of  the  points 
involved  in  the  case  before  him,  was  very  (juick,  and  the  first  inti- 
mation he  gave  on  incidental  matters  occurring  in  the  course  of  the 
trial,  was  a  sure  indication  of  what  the  result  would  be  ;  and  al- 
though he  would  take  special  pains  to  say  to  the  counsel  that  he 
had  formed  no  opinion,  the  partv  against  whom  he  leaned  knew 
that  his  fate  was  sealed.  His  labors  in  his  official  duties  must  have 
been  immense.  It  fell  to  his  lot  to  give  the  opinion  of  the  Court 
in  nearly  all  the  cases  tried  in  the  Supreme  Court  for  several  years 
after  his  a]Ji)ointment,  and  nearly  all  the  material  of  the  third,  fourth 
and  fifth  large  volumes  of  the  Connecticut  Reports  are  the  result 
of  his  study  of  the  cases  before  the  Court,  and  some  of  them  are 
very  learned  and  labored.  His  illustrations  in  the  case  of  Mitchell 
vs.  Warner,  in  the  2d  of  Connecticut  Reports,  of  the  extent  of  the 
obligations  incurred  in  the  covenants  of  a  deed,  explained  the  sub- 
ject to  me.  when  I  was  young,  better  than  anything  I  had  before 
read  on  the  subject. 

It  seemed  to  be  his  object  to  render  himself  as  agreeable  as  pos- 
sible to  the  members  of  the  bar,  sometimes  employing  his  leisure 
moments  on  the  bench  in  furnishing  prescriptions  for  human  ail- 
ments, such  as  corns  on  the  toes,  and  handing  them  over  to  such 
members  as  stood  in  need  of  them.  Then  he  would  hand  over  a 
formula  for  making,  as  he  said,  the  best  kind  of  liquid  blacking  for 
our  boots.  In  fact,  every  thing  which  he  had  prescribed,  he  always 
designated  as  the  7'cry  best.  At  one  term  of  the  Court,  Phineas 
Miner,  Es([..  who  had  lived  a  widower  for  several  years,  was  about 
being  married,  which  fact  was  intimated  to  the  Judge.  While  he 
sat  waiting  on  the  bench  for  the  preparation  of  some  business,  he 
spoke  out  suddenly.  "Gentlemen!  Is  there  a  vacant  cell  in  your  jail? 
Won't  it  be  necessary  for  me  to  commit  Mr.  Miner  to  prevent  his  do- 
ing some  rash  act  ?"'  The  laugh  was  thoroughly  turned  upon  poor 
Miner,  and  the  whole  scene  was  very  enjoyable.  He  employed  all 
his  leisure  hours  in  obtaining  all  the  relaxation  which  was  within 
his  reach.  He  played  on  the  piano  and  violin,  and  sang  with  great 
power  and  eft'ect. 

There  was  no  perceptible  waning  of  his  powers,  physical  or  men- 
tal, during  the  time  of  his  service  on  the  Court.  He  retired  from 
the  bench  at  the  age  of  70  years,  in  February,  1833,  and  died,  after 
a  short  illness,  in  less  than  two  vears  thereafter. 


SEDGWICK  S   ADDRESS  75 


JUDGE  PETERS. 


John  Thompson  Peters  was  the  senior  Associate  Judge  of  the 
Court,  and  he  held  his  first  circuit  in  this  County.  He  was  a  native 
of  Hebron,  and  a  lawyer  of  respectable  standing-.  His  fellow-citi- 
zens had  often  honored  him  with  a  seat  in  the  Legislature,  and  thus 
he  had  become  tolerably  well  known  in  the  State.  When  the  United 
States  direct  tax  was  laid  in  1813.  he  was  appointed  Collector  for 
the  first  district,  removed  to  Hartford,  and  held  that  office  when 
he  was  appointed  Judge.  He  had  been  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Democratic  party  from  its  formation  ;  and,  as  an  Episcopalian,  had 
opposed  the  claims  of  the  "Standing  Order"  to  ecclesiastical  prior- 
ity, and  some  apprehensions  were  felt  lest  his  well  known  views  on 
these  subjects  might  temper  his  opinions  on  those  questions  inci- 
dentally involving  them.  Many  fears  were  entertained  as  to  the 
stability  of  ecclesiastical  funds  which  existed  in  almost  every  Con- 
gregational parish,  and  those  who  desired  to  break  them  down  look- 
ed to  Judge  Peters  and  his  influence  with  the  Court  to  aid  them. 
But  those  who  entertained  such  hopes  were  destined  to  an  early  dis- 
appointment, as  their  first  experience  of  his  administration  on  such 
questions  showed  him  to  be  disposed  to  stand  firmly  on  the  old 
paths.  He  used  to  tell  an  amusing  anecdote  relating  to  his  first 
trial  of  such  a  case  in  one  of  tiie  Eastern  Counties  of  the  State, 
where  he  was  appealed  to,  very  strongly,  to  decide  that  a  promise 
to  pay  money  in  aid  of  such  funds  was  without  consideration.  Rut 
he  told  the  parties  that  the  law  on  that  subject  was  well  settled,  and, 
in  his  opinion,  founded  on  correct  principles:  and  that  if  he  had 
the  power,  he  had  not  the  disposition  to  change  it.  It  had  been  the 
practice  of  the  Congregational  pastor  of  the  village,  to  open  the 
proceedings  in  Court  with  prayer,  but  considering  Peters  to  be  a 
heretic,  (1  use  the  Judge's  own  language,)  he  had  never  invited 
Divine  favor  for  him,  but  after  that  decision,  every  prayer  was 
charged  with  invocations  of  blessings  upon  ''thy  sarvcnt.  the  judg^c^ 

He  was  verv  severe  in  meting  ciut  the  punishments  of  the  law  to 
convicted  criminals,  generally  inflicting  the  severest  sentence  that 
the  law  would  allow.  One  case  was  tried  before  him  which  excited 
much  remark  and  some  reprehension.  .\  man  had  been  convicted 
before  Judge  Lanman  of  a  State  prison  olTence,  had  been  sentenced 
to  four  years'  imprisonment  and  had  served  a  part  of  a  year,  when 
he  obtained  a  new  trial.  He  was  tried  again  before  Judge  Peters, 
and  again  convicted.  When  the  time  came  to  pass  sentence  on  the 
last  conviction,  his  counsel  asked  for  some  mitigation  on  account 
of  the  imprisonment  already  sufifered.  Said  the  Judge  "He  must 
settle  that  account  with  Judge  Lanman.  He  owes  me  five  years' 
imprisonment  in  State  prison" — and  such  was  the  sentence.  One 
prisoner  who  had  received  a  severe  sentence  at  his  hands,  after  the 
expiration   of   his    confinement,   burned   the   Judge's   barn,    and   he 


76  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH   AND   BAR 

petitioned  the  Legislature  of  the  State  to  pay  for  it,  in  18 13,  but 
they  declined  to  make  the  compensation. 

For  a  few  years,  the  services  of  Judge  Peters  on  the  bench  were 
very  acceptable.  His  decisions  were  prompt,  and  generally  found- 
ed on  a  sensible  view  of  the  matter  before  him,  without  any  aflfect- 
tation  of  learning  or  display  of  oratory.  His  entire  candor  and  fair- 
ness were  never  called  in  question,  and  the  decay  of  his  powers, 
which  was  very  apparent  towards  the  close  of  his  career,  was 
observed  by  the  bar  with  sorrow  and  regret.  I  witnessed  an  af- 
fecting scene  connected  with  his  experience  on  the  bench,  which 
excited  a  deep  feeling  of  sympathy.  He  had  a  favorite  son,  Hugh 
Peters,  Esq.,  whom  he  had  educated  at  Yale  College,  and  in  whom 
all  his  hopes  seemed  to  centre.  This  young  man,  in  connection 
with  George  D.  Prentice,  the  noted  Editor,  had  much  to  do  in  con- 
ducting the  New  England  Weekly  Rev\eii\  a  paper  just  established 
in  Hartford,  and  which  was  the  organ  of  the  party  which  elected 
William  W.  Ellsworth,  Jabez  W.  Huntington,  and  William  L. 
Storrs  to  Congress.  He  had  acquired  a  wide  reputation  as  a  writer 
of  brilliant  promise,  and  after  a  while  went  to  Cincinnati  to  go  into 
business  as  a  lawyer.  On  his  way  across  Long"  Island  Sound,  he 
wrote  a  Farewell  to  New  England  in  poetry,  which  was  published 
with  great  commendation,  in  most  of  the  newspapers  in  the  country. 
Soon  after  his  arrival  at  Cincinnati,  his  dead  body  was  found  float- 
ing in  the  Ohio,  several  miles  below  the  city,  and  circumstances  were 
such  as  to  create  the  belief  in  some  minds  that  it  was  a  case  of  suicide. 
The  intelligence  of  this  sad  event  was  brought  to  Litchfield  while 
the  Court  of  Errors  was  in  session  in  June,  183 1.  It  was  first  com- 
municated to  Judge  Williams,  who  sat  next  to  Judge  Peters ;  and  he, 
with  all  possible  tenderness,  informed  the  latter.  The  Reporter,  Mr. 
Day,  in  giving  the  report  of  the  case  on  trial,  closing  it  by  saying: 
"Peters.  Judge,  having  received,  during  the  argument  of  this  case, 
intelligence  of  the  death  of  his  son.  Hugh  Peters,  Esq.,  of  Cincinnati, 
left  the  Court  House,  'niulfa  geiiieiis  easiique  ammuui  concessns; 
and  gave  no  opinion."  I  witnessed  the  mournful  scene,  and  I  well 
remember  the  loud  and  plaintive  groans  of  the  afflicted  old  man  as  he 
passed  out  of  the  Court  room  and  down  the  stairway  to  his  lodg- 
ings. 

When  Chief  Justice  Hosmer  retired  from  the  bench,  the  Legisla- 
ture, by  a  very  strong  vote,  elected  Judge  Peters'  junior.  Judge  Dag- 
gett, Chief  Justice.  He  felt  the  slight,  but  did  not  retire,  and  held 
his  place  till  his  death  in  August.  1834.  A  few  weeks  longer,  and 
he  would  have  reached  the  age  of  seventy  years. 


JUDGE   CHAPMAN. 

The  next  Judge  in  seniority  was  Asa  Chapman,  of  Newtown,  in 
Fairfield  Countv.     For  several  vears  before  he  received  the  appoint- 


SEDGWICK  S  ADDRESS  JJ 

nient,  he  practiced  to  some  extent  in  this  County,  and  was,  of  course, 
well  known  here.  He  was  the  father  of  the  late  Charles  Chapman  of 
Hartford.  He  was  somewhat  taller  than  the  son,  and  with  his  bald 
head,  white  locks,  thin  face,  and  grey  eyes,  he  resembled  him  not  a 
little  in  personal  appearance,  but  he  had  none  of  that  bitterness  of 
manner  or  spirit  which  characterized  the  efiforts  of  the  younger  Chap- 
man. He  was  an  Episcopalian  in  religious  faith,  and  he  had  very 
naturally  fallen  into  the  ranks  of  the  new  party,  and  being-  well  quali- 
fied for  the  place  in  point  of  legal  ability,  he  made  a  very  acceptable 
and  popular  Judge.  He  was  a  man  of  good  humor,  genial  temper, 
and  great  colloquial  powers,  which  he  exercised  very  freely  on  the 
trial  of  cases.  Ha  lawyer  undertook  to  argue  a  case  before  him, 
he  soon  found  himself  engaged  in  a  friendly,  familiar  conversation 
with  the  Judge  the  evident  intent  of  the  latter  being  to  draw  out 
the  truth  and  justice  of  the  case.  His  adminstration  was  very 
popular,  and  his  early  death  was  greatly  deplored.  He  died  of  con- 
sumption in  1826.  at  the  age  of  fifty-six  years. 


JUDGE    BRAIXAKD. 

Jeremiah  Gates  Brainard,  of  Xew  London,  the  father  of  the  poet 
Brainard,  was  next  in  seniority  on  the  bench.  He  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  old  Court  from  1807  and  he  was  elected  to  the  new  Court, 
under  the  circumstances  which  I  have  mentioned.  He  was  a  man  of 
no  showy  pretensions,  very  plain  and  simple  in  his  manners,  and 
very  familiar  in  his  intercourse  with  the  Bar.  He  affected  very 
little  dignity  on  the  bench,  and  yet  he  was  regarded  as  an  ex- 
cellent Judge.  He  dispatched  business  with  great  facility,  and  im- 
plicit confidence  was  placed  in  his  sound  judgment  and  integrity. 
He  resigned  his  place  on  the  bench  in  1829,  his  health  not  being 
equal  to  the  duties  of  the  office,  having  served  as  judge  for  twenty- 
two  vears. 


JUDGE    BRISTOL. 


Of  all  the  judges  on  the  bench,  William  Bristol  of  New  Haven 
was  the  youngest  in  years  as  well  as  in  rank.  He  had  not  been 
much  known  as  a  lawyer,  out  of  the  County  of  New  Haven,  and.  of 
course  his  coming  here  was  looked  for  with  considerable  interest. 
He  evidently  had  a  high  sense  of  judicial  dignity,  his  manners  on 
the  bench  being  very  taciturn,  approaching  severeness,  very  seldom 
speaking,  except  to  announce  his  decisions  in  the  fewest  possible 
words,  and  I  cloubt  if  any  one  ever  saw  him  smile  in  Court.  His 
decisions  were  sound  and  well  considered  and.  upon  the  whole,  his 
administration  was  respectable,  although  he  could  not  be  said  to 
have  had  much  personal  popularity  at  the  bar. 


yS  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH    AND    BAR 

JUDGE    DAGCETT. 

The  decease  of  Judge  Chapman  and  the  resignation  of  Judge 
Bristol  in  1826.  created  two  vacancies  in  the  Court  which  were  to 
be  filled  at  the  session  of  the  Legislature  of  that  year.  The  same 
party  which  had  effected  the  change  in  the  government  of  the  state, 
and  in  the  constitution  of  the  Court,  was  still  in  power,  but  nearly 
all  the  eminent  lawyers  in  the  State  adhered  to  the  federal  party. 
Probably  the  most  obnoxious  man  in  the  state  to  the  dominant  party 
was  David  Daggett,  not  so  much  from  personal  dislike  as  from  his 
prominence  in  the  ranks  of  his  party.  His  talents,  integrity  and 
high  legal  abilitties  were  conceeded  by  everyone,  but  when  the  legis- 
lature assembled,  there  was  probably  not  a  man  in  the  state  who 
looked  to  his  election  as  a  judge. 

There  were  a  few  men  in  the  state  belonging  to  the  toleration 
partv  who  felt  deeply  the  importance  of  having  a  reputable  court, 
and  who,  on  this  question,  were  willing  to  forego  all  party  considera- 
tion. Morris  Woodruff,  of  Litchfield  County.  Thaddeus  Betts  and 
Charles  Hawley.  of  Fairfield  County.  Walter  Booth,  of  Xew  Haven 
County,  and  Charles  J.  ]\IcCurdy.  of  New  London  County,  were 
men  of  that  stamp ;  and  it  was  through  the  influence  of  these  men, 
and  of  others  of  less  prominence,  that  David  Daggett  was  elected  a 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  same  influence,  exerted  by  the 
same  men,  secured  the  election  of  Judges  Williams  and  Bissell,  three 
years  later. 

After  the  election  of  Judge  Daggett  was  effected,  no  one  seemed 
to  care  who  the  other  judge  might  be.  as  with  Chief  Justice  Hos- 
mer  at  the  head  of  the  court,  and  Judge  Daggett  as  an  associate,  it 
was  felt  that  it  could  have  a  highly  respectable  character.  The 
Hon.  James  Lanman  received  the  appointment,  but  after  a  short 
term  of  service,  resigned. 

An  elaborate  sketch  of  Judge  Daggett  is  given  in  the  twentieth 
volume  of  our  reports. 


TITE    SUPERIOR    COURT,    FiFTV    YEARS    SINCE. 

There  were  sessions  of  the  Superior  Court  in  each  year,  holden 
on  the  third  Tuesdays  of  August  and  February,  and  the  terms  rare- 
ly extended  beyond  two  weeks.  If  they  reached  to  the  third  week 
they  were  deemed  to  be  of  extraordinary  length.  The  Superior 
Cburt  had  no  original  jurisdiction,  except  as  a  court  of  equity. 
All  its  actions  at  law  came  up  by  appeal  from  the  County  Court, 
and  generally  important  cases  were  carried  up  without  trial  in  the 
court  below.  The  party  wishing  to  appeal  his  case  would  demur, 
either  to  the  declaration  or  plea,  as  the  case  might  be,  suffer  a 
judgment  to  be  entered  against  him,  and  appeal  from  it  and  then 


Aic.rsTLS  PETTI rox; 


MICIIAKI.    F.    MILLS 


JOSKl'ii     F.     liALLAMY 


w:\i.  G.  COE 


SEDGWICK  S   ADDRESS  79 

change  his  plea  in  the  Superior  Court  as  the  exigencies  of  his  case 
may  require.  The  making  of  copies  in  the  case  appealed  was  a 
very  profitable  item  in  the  business  of  the  clerk.  All  cases  at  law 
wherein  the  matter  in  demand  exceeded  seventy  dollars  were  ap- 
pealable, and  all  matters  in  equity  in  which  the  sum  involved  ex- 
ceeded three  hundred  dollars  were  brought  originally  to  the  Su- 
perior Court.  In  criminal  matters  the  jurisdiction  of  both  courts 
was  concurrent.  e.xce])t  in  crimes  of  a  higher  grade  which  were 
tried  exclusively  in  the  Superior  Court.  A  case  was  pretty  certain 
to  reach  a  trial  at  the  second  term  after  it  was  entered  in  the 
docket,  imless  special  reasons  could  be  shown  for  its  further  con- 
tinuance. 


THE  COl■XT^■   COLkT JIDGE   PETTIBONE. 

The  County  Court  had  an  important  agency  in  the  administra- 
tion of  Justice,  fifty  years  ago.  Under  the  old  form  of  govern- 
ment it  consisted  of  one  judge  and  four  justices  of  the  quorum; 
under  tiie  constitution,  of  one  Chief  Judge  and  two  associate  judges. 
When  I  came  to  the  bar  Augustus  Pettibone  of  Xorfolk  was  Chief 
judge;  Martin  Strong,  of  Salisbury,  and  John  Welch,  of  Litch- 
field, associate  judges,  judge  Pettibone  had  presided  for  several 
years  in  the  old  court,  and  although  he  was  a  federalist  of  decided 
convictions,  he  was  continued  in  office  by  the  party  in  i)Ower  until 
he  resigned  the  place  in  1832.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
judges  in  this  court  were  appointed  annually  by  the  legislature. 
Judge  Pettibone  had  a  high  standing  as  a  man  of  integrity  and  of 
sound  common  sense.  His  early  education  was  deficient  and  he 
made  many  grammatical  mistakes  in  his  charges  to  the  jury,  but 
he  had  been  esteemed,  and  was  a  lawyer  of  respectable  attainments. 
He  was  a  native  of  Xorfolk.  where  he  lived  to  a  very  great  age. 
He  was  tall  and  slender  in  person,  somewhat  round  shouldered 
with  hair  which  was  very  abundant  and  which  remained  so  during 
life.  Xo  one  could  doubt  the  fairness  and  good  sense  of  his  de- 
cisions ;  and,  upon  the  whole,  his  career  as  a  judge  was  creditable 
to  his  reputation. 


JUDGE     STRONG. 

Martin  Strong  of  Salisbury,  was  the  senior  associate  judge. 
He  was  a  son  of  Col.  Adonijah  Strong  of  that  town,  a  lawyer  of 
the  olden  time,  of  whose  wit  as  well  as  blunders,  many  stories  were 
rife  fifty  years  ogo.  Colonel  Strong  had  four  sons  all  of  whom 
entered  into  professional  life,  two  as  clergymen  and  two  as  law- 
yers. His  son,  the  Rev.  William  Strong,  was  father  of  the  Hon. 
William  Strong,  of  Pennsylvania,  recently  appointed  an  associate 
justice  of  the  ^Supreme   Court   of  the  United   States.     Our  Judge 


8o  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

Martin  Strong  had  been  a  member  of  the  bar  for  several  years,  but 
had  never  made  a  very  high  mark  in  his  profession — in  fact  he  had 
never  devoted  himself  very  assiduously  to  the  discharge  of  its  du- 
ties. He  owned  a  large  and  valuable  farm  on  the  town  hill  in  Salis- 
bury, and  his  principal  business  was  to  attend  to  that.  When  he 
came  upon  the  bench  he  seemed  to  have  a  recollection  of  a  few 
plain  legal  ma.xims,  but  his  methods  of  applying  them  to  cases  was 
not  always  the  most  skillful.  He  was  a  man  of  immense  physical 
dimensions,  and  when  he  had  taken  his  seat  on  the  bench,  he  sat 
in  perfect  quiet,  until  the  loud  proclamation  of  the  sheriff  an- 
nounced the  adjournment  of  the  court.  He  remained  in  office 
till  1829,  when  William  M.  Burrall,  Esq.,  of  Canaan,  took  his  place. 


TTDGE     WELCH. 


The  junior  judge  of  the  court  was  the  Hon.  John  Welch  of 
Litchfield.  He  was  a  native  of  the  parish  of  Milton  and  a  gradu- 
ate of  Yale  College  in  the  class  of  1778,  a  class  which  is  said  to 
have  produced  more  eminent  men  in  proportion  to  its  numbers  than 
any  other  which  ever  graduated  at  that  institution.  Joel  Barlow, 
Zephaniah  Swift,  Uriah  Tracy.  Xoah  Webster  and  the  last  Gover- 
nor Wolcott,  with  many  other  distinguished  men,  were  of  the  class. 

Judge  Welch  never  entered  either  of  the  professions,  but  he 
lived  to  a  very  great  age.  He  was  appointed  a  judge  of  the  County 
Court  in  the  place  of  Cyrus  Swan,  Esq.,  of  Sharon,  who  had  re- 
signed his  position  on  the  bench  of  the  court  in  1819.  Judge 
Welch  continued  on  the  bench  till  he  became  disqualified  by  age  in 
1829.  He  made  no  pretentions  to  legal  learning  but  his  decisions 
were  based  on  a  fair  impartial  view  of  the  questions  as  they  came 
up.  He  always  gave  reasons  for  the  opinion  he  had  formed,  al- 
wavs  made  himself  well  understood,  and  his  candor,  fairness  and 
sound  judgment  were  admitted  by  all. 


JUDGES    I'.L'KRALL,    WOODRUFF    AND    BOARDM.VN. 

In  1829,  when  Judge  Welch  must  retire  on  account  of  his  age, 
it  was  deemed  proper  by  the  legislature  to  make  new  appointments 
of  both  associate  judges.  Judge  Strcnig  had  been  twelve  years  on 
the  bench,  and  in  his  place  William  M.  Burrall,  Esq.,  of  Canaan, 
was  appointed  senior  associate  judge,  and  Gen.  Morris  W^oodrufif 
took  the  place  of  Judge  W^elch.  The  court  continued  thus  organ- 
ized till  the  resignation  of  Judge  Pcttibone,  when,  not  only  with 
the  consent,  but  with  the  decided  approval  of  both  associate  judges, 
David  S.  Boardman,  Esq.,  of  New  Milford,  was  taken  from  the 
bar  and  installed  Chief  Judge  of  the  County  Court,  which  as  then 
constituted,  held  a  high  position  in  public  confidence. 


SEDGWICK  S   ADDRESS 


8i 


HOX.    FREDERICK   WOLCOTT,   CLERK 

The  Clerk  of  the  Court  was  the  lion.  Frederick  Wolcott.  wlio 
was  appointed  as  early  as  1781.  and  who  retained  the  place  till  1835. 
when  he  resiq-ned.  after  a  service  of  forty-four  years.  He  was  a 
son  of  the  sec<:)n(l.  and  a  brother  of  the  late  Governor  of  that  name, 
and  undoubtedly  cherished  highly  aristocratic  feelings  and  had  a 
great  amount  of  family  pride,  but  his  intercourse  with  the  members 
of  the  bar  was  gentlemanly  and  conciliatory.  He  was  of  a  noble 
presence,  large  and  manly  in  person,  and  always  dressed  in  the 
best  style  of  the  ancient  fashion  of  small  clothes,  white  stockings, 
and  white  topped  boots.  His  knowledge  of  legal  proceedings  in 
the  County,  ran  back  so  far  that  no  one  ever  presumed  to  question 
his  accuracy  as  to  leeal  forms  and  precedents.  When  his  resigna- 
tion was  accepted  by  the  Court,  a  minute,  preoared  bv  Uidge  Rur- 
rall,  which  referred  to  his  long  and  faithful  service,  and  which  con- 


82  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

tained  the  statement  tliat  no  judgment  of  the  Court  had  ever  been 
reversed  on  account  of  any  mistake  of  the  Clerk,  was  entered  on 
the  records  of  the  County  Court.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Gover- 
nor's Council  under  the  Charter  Government,  and  was  coutinued 
in  the  Senate  for  several  vears,  under  the  constitution. 


SHERIEE  SEYMOUR 

Moses  Seymour,  Jr.,  Esq.,  was  Sheriff  of  the  County  from  1819 
to  1825,  but  the  active  duties  of  the  office  were  performed  by  his 
deputy,  his  brother  Ozias,  who  had  been  a  deputy  of  the  old  Sheriff' 
Landon,  and  who  had  become  well  acquainted  with  the  practical 
duties  of  the  office  as  they  were  preformed  in  our  County.  He 
opened  and  adjourned  the  daily  sessions,  called  parties  to  appear 
in  court  as  their  presence  was  demanded,  and.  in  fact,  was  the  ac- 
tive Sheriff"  in  nearly  all  the  proceedings.  He  succeeded  his  brother 
as  Sheriff  in  1825.  and  held  the  office  till  1834. 


UNCLE  JOHN  STONE,  MESSENGER 

Nor  must  we  omit  to  mention  here,  the  messenger  of  that  day, 
good  old  Uncle  John  Stone.  How  long  he  had  held  the  place  be- 
fore 1820,  I  know  not,  but  I  found  him  here  then,  and  it  took  but  a 
very  short  time  to  make  his  acquaintance,  and  learn  his  kindness 
of  heart.  He  harl  a  kind  of  dry  humor,  which  sometimes  showed 
itself  in  witty  sayings,  and  sometimes  in  pungent  sarcasms.  He 
was  a  faithful  messenger,  an  honest  man,  and  to  all  human  appear- 
ance, a  sincere  christian.  He  retained  his  place  till  he  fell  dead  in 
the  public  liighway.  in  1830,  in  a  fit  of  apoplexy. 


BUSINESS  OF  THE  OLD  COUNTY  COURT 

There  were  three  sessions  of  the  old  County  Court  in  each  year 
in  March.  September  and  December.  The  September  term  was 
generally  short,  merely  disposing  of  the  criminal  business  and  such 
other  preliminary  matters  as  could  not  be  jmssed  over.  The  March 
term  lasted  three  weeks,  and  the  Deceml,er  term  from  four  to  six 
weeks,  as  the  business  might  demand.  The  first  half  day  was  al- 
ways taken  up  in  calling  the  docket.  Mr.  Wolcott  had  his  files  ar- 
ranged ali)habetically,  corresponding  with  the  entries  on  the  docket 
and  of  these  some  member  of  the  bar,  usually  one  of  the  younger, 
had  charire.     The  Sheriff'  took  his  station  in  the  center  of  the  bar, 


Sedgwick's  address  83 

and  as  the  cases  were  named  by  the  Clerk,  the  proper  entries  were 
made  both  on  the  docket  and  on  the  file,  and  then  the  file  was  passed 
to  the  Sherifif,  who  delivered  it  to  the  party  entitled  to  it,  and  thus, 
at  the  close  of  the  proceedings  all  the  files  had  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  members  of  the  bar  where  they  remained  until  the  case  re- 
ceived final  disposition.  Three  hundred  cases  were  considered  as 
constituting  a  small  docket  and  I  have  known  as  many  as  nine 
hundred  entered  at  a  single  term. 


ADMISSIOK    TO    THE    BAR. 

When  I  came  to  the  bar  in  1820,  there  were  two  grades  of  law- 
yers in  the  State.  The  first  admission  only  authorized  the  candi- 
date to  practice  at  the  County  Court,  and  a  service  of  two  years 
was  required  at  that  bar  before  he  was  allowed  an  examination  for 
admission  to  the  bar  of  the  Superior  Court :  and  I  was  at  the  bar 
of  the  County  Court  for  a  year  or  more  in  expectation  of  under- 
going another  ordeal  in  the  upper  Court.  In  the  meantime  the 
statutes  of  the  State  had  been  revised  under  the  superintendence  of 
Judge  Swift  and  many  and  material  alterations  had  been  made  to 
conform  the  provisions  of  the  law  to  the  new  order  of  things  under 
the  constitutions.  The  cjuestion  came  before  Judge  Brainard  and 
he  decided  that  imder  the  revised  statutes  an  admission  to  the  bar 
of  the  County  Court  gave  the  can<lidate  authority  to  practice  in  all 
the  Courts  in  the  State,  and  that  decision  was  assented  to  by  all  the 
judges. 

The  matter  of  examining  candidates  for  admission  to  the  bar 
was,  in  those  days,  an  imjxising  solemnity,  and  the  day  for  that 
proceeding  was  a  marked  day  of  the  term.  All  the  members  of  the 
bar  were  expected  to  be  present  and  few  failed  of  attending.  The 
coiumittee  of  examination  occupied  the  judges  seats;  the  chair- 
man holding  the  place  of  the  Chief  Judge,  indicating  to  each  separ- 
ate member  of  the  committee  the  subject  in  which  he  was  expected 
to  examine  the  candidate,  and  thus  a  thorough  and  searching  ex- 
amination was  had.  After  the  examination  was  closed  the  candi- 
dates retired,  and  the  members  of  the  bar  gave  their  opinions 
scriati)ii  on  the  question  of  the  admission  of  the  applicant.  Some- 
times candidates  were  rejected.  It  had  been  the  practice  in  early 
times  to  have  an  entertainment  at  the  close  of  the  examination  at 
the  expense  of  the  successful  candidates,  but  this  had  been  dispensed 
with  when  I  was  examined.  Stories  were  told  of  some  eminent 
members  of  the  bar  who,  on  such  occasions,  indulged  in  practices 
which  were  not  creditable  to  their  reputation  for  temperance  and 
sobriety.  Perhaps  it  was  for  this  reason  that  the  practice  was 
abolished. 


84  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

PRACTICE. 

Statutory  provisions  and  the  advance  of  legal  science,  as  well 
as  a  more  just  sense  of  what  is  due  to  the  best  interest  of  litigation, 
have  made  great  changes  in  the  course  of  proceedings  before  the 
Courts,  during  the  last  fifty  years.  Then,  it  was  customary  for 
counsel  to  take  advantage  of  any  trivial  omission  which  could  be 
found  in  the  proceedings,  and  a  case  never  came  to  trial  until  every 
possible  effort  for  abatement  or  delay,  had  been  exhausted.  Our 
Statute  in  relation  to  amendments  had  not  then  received  so  liberal 
a  construction,  nor  was  it  in  itself  so  liberal  in  its  provisions  as  it 
now  is ;  and  thus  opportunity  was  afforded  for  the  display  of  much 
ingenuity  in  the  prosecution  of  dilatory  pleas. 

Then,  there  were  no  statutory  provisions  relating  to  injunctions. 
All  the  power  which  the  Court  had  in  that  matter  being  that  with 
which  it  was  invested  by  the  common  law  as  a  Court  of  Ecjuity,  and 
hence,  very  little  will  be  found  in  our  Reports  on  this  subject,  until 
about  1826,  after  the  Statute  authorizing  the  judges  to  grant  tem- 
porary injunctions  had  been  passed.  This  Statute  was  introduced 
into  the  legislature  by  Judge  Swift,  who  was  a  member  for  several 
sessions  after  his  retirement  from  the  bench.  Since  then  many 
cases  relating  to  this  branch  of  jurisprudence,  have  been  before  our 
Courts. 

Probablv  more  than  half  the  suits  commenced  in  our  County 
Courts,  fifty  years  ago,  were  brought  to  enforce  the  collection  of 
debts,  and  in  some  localities  this  was  a  profitable  business.  The 
County  Court  then  had  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  where  the  matter 
in  demand  exceeded  the  sum  of  fifteen  dollars,  and  this  brought  into 
it  a  great  number  of  suits  now  tried  by  single  justices,  and  accounts 
for  the  great  diminution  in  the  number  of  cases  now  brought  here. 

Piles  of  learning  were  devoted  to  destruction  by  the  edict  of  the 
legislature,  admitting  parties  and  other  persons  in  interest  to  be 
heard  as  witnesses.  The  nicest  and  most  refined  legal  questions 
were  frequently  brought  before  the  Courts  for  decision  in  matters 
relating  to  the  interest  of  witnesses,  but  now  they  are  almost  for- 
gotten by  the  most  learned  of  the  profession. 


THE   AL'THORITIES   THEN    IN    USE. 

The  Statutes  then  in  force  were  the  Revision  of  1808,  by  far  the 
most  elaborate  and  complete  of  any  ever  published.  It  contains 
a  complete  history  of  the  legislation  of  Connecticut  on  all  subjects 
of  statutory  enactment  from  the  first,  and  is  still  a  useful  book  for 
study  by  the  profession.  The  principal  labor  of  its  preparation  for 
publication  was  performed  by  Thomas  Day. 

Comparatively    few    American    authorities    were    cited    in    our 


Sedgwick's  address  85 

Courts,  then.  Mr.  Day  had  pubhshed  four  volumes  of  Day's  Re- 
ports, and  then  had  suspended  further  pubHcation  for  want  of  en- 
couragement. The  Legislature,  in  181 5,  had  authorized  the  Court 
to  appoint  a  Reporter,  and  had  given  him  a  salary.  Under  such  an 
appointment,  Mr.  Day  had  commenced  publishing  the  Connecticut 
Reports,  and  had  published  three  volumes  of  them,  when  he  publish- 
ed the  fifth  of  Day,  thus  filling  the  gap  between  the  fourth  of  Day 
and  the  first  of  Connecticut.  The  X.  Y.  Reports,  by  Caine  and 
Johnson,  tlown  to  the  12th  of  Johnson,  and  twelve  volumes  of  the 
Massachusetts  Reports,  were  out,  and  these,  with  our  Reports,  were 
about  the  only  American  authorities  which  were  cited  in  our  Courts 
Not  a  single  American  elementary  work  had  then  been  published,  ex- 
cept Swift's  System  and  Swift's  Evidence.  The  English  Reports  from 
Burrows  down,  including  Douglas',  Cowper's,  Term,  and  East's 
Reports,  down  to  the  12th  volume,  with  Blackstone's  Commentaries, 
which  were  always  on  the  table,  were  the  staple  authorities  of  the 
times.  I  remark  in  passing,  that  Judge  Reeve  said  that  he  consider- 
ed Cowper's  Reports  the  best  that  had  then  been  published  of  the 
decisions  of  the  Court  of  King's  bench. 

But  it  is  time  to  speak  of  the  warriors  in  those  bloodless  forensic 
battles  which  were  fought  on  this  field,  fifty  years  ago.  They  are  all 
fresh  in  my  memory,  but  they  have  j^assed  from  the  stage  of  life. 
I  have  delayed  this  part  of  my  undertaking  to  the  last  moment,  from 
the  mere  dread  of  entering  upon  it.  I  feel  it  to  be  a  very  difficult 
task  to  present  the  lawyers  of  those  days  to  the  profession  now,  in 
anything  like  their  just  attitude.  Men  of  the  highest  attainments  at 
the  bar  are  entirely  different  from  each  other.  Man_\-  little  things 
which  cannot  be  detailed  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  characters 
of  different  men.  The  same  qualities  mingle  in  unequal  proportions 
in  dift'erent  persons  and  I  feel  embarrassed  in  every  way  as  I  ap- 
proach the  task  of  speaking  of  the  professional  gentlemen  who 
manned  the  post  of  duty  on  this  field,  fifty  years  ago. 

There  were  then,  as  now.  two  clases  of  the  profession  here.  (  )ne 
class  had  a  local  practice,  being  ijrincipally  engaged  in  causes  arising 
in  their  immediate  locality.  The  practice  of  the  other  class  was 
co-extensive  with  the  power  of  their  ability  and  not  always  confined 
to  the  count\- — of  tliis  later  class  there  were  several  here. 


JLDC.E   C.OLLD. 


The  Honorable  James  Gould  had  undoubtedly  stood  at  the  head 
of  the  profession  in  this  state,  both  as  an  advocate  and  a  lawyer, 
previous  to  his  elevation  to  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court.  After 
his  retirement  from  that  position  he  professed  to  have  retired  from 
practice,  and  devoted  himself  principally  to  giving  law  lectures  to 


86  ijTcrrFiEr.n  couxTv  bexcfi  and  bar 

students,  l)ut  in  two  cases  in  this  count}',  and  one  in  Hartford  County, 
he  came  to  the  bar  and  conducted  the  trials.  One  was  the  case  of 
the  Phoenix  Hank  ag^ainst  Governor  Wolcott  and  others,  in  which 
the  Governor  endeavored  to  avoid  payment  of  a  debt  for  which  he 
was  only  a  surety,  on  the  grounds  of  usury.  It  was  a  proceeding 
in  equity,  and  the  argument  of  Judge  Gould  was  exceedingly  able  and 
elaborate.  He  occasionally  indulged  in  keen,  cutting  sarcasms, 
which  pointed  strongly  to  the  Honorable  defendant  who  was  present. 
His  argument  was  what  Cotton  Mather  would  call  "a  Juculcnt  com- 
mentary" on  the  law  of  usury.  The  case  was  decided  in  favor  of 
the  Bank. 

The  other  was  a  trial  to  the  jury  in  which  a  very  intimate  friend 
of  Judge  Gould  was  a  party,  and  in  this  case  his  professional  emi- 
nence was  exhibited  in  a  very  striking  manner.  In  his  argument 
he  was  entirel\-  unimpassioned,  and  remarkably  clear  in  his  illustra- 
tions. He  stood  much  of  the  time  with  his  hand  on  a  book,  which 
stood  on  one  end,  on  the  table  before  him,  and  I  do  not  remember 
that  he  made  a  single  gesture  during  the  whole  time  of  his  argu- 
ment. He  occupied  the  attention  of  the  court  and  jury  for  an  hour 
and  a  half,  and  it  was  the  last  case  he  tried.  He  was  a  perfect  master 
of  the  most  effective  method  of  delivery.  In  his  written  opinions 
w^hile  on  the  bench  there  is  sometimes  an  involution  of  thought  and 
language  as  well  as  a  prolongation  of  sentences  which  renders  neces- 
sary the  strictest  attention  while  reading  to  work  out  the  true  mean- 
ing, but  in  his  oral  deliveries  he  had  such  a  perfect  mastery  of  the 
laws  of  accent,  emphasis  and  cadence  as  to  make  his  meaning  in- 
telligible to  the  most  careless  hearer.  The  exhibition  of  his  ability 
in  this  case  was  an  appropriate  closing  effort  of  a  long  career  of  high 
professional  eminence. 

There  were  a  few  other  members  of  the  bar.  not  reaching  the 
eminence  of  Judge  Gould,  yet  whose  practice  was  co-extensive  with 
the  countv  and  extended  sometimes  into  other  counties.  The  names 
of  the  following  gentlemen  now  occur  to  me  as  belonging  to  that 
class:  Noah  B.  Benedict,  Asa  Bacon,  Elijah  Sterling,  David  S. 
Boardman  and  Phineas  Miner.  I  have  not  included  the  name  of 
Jabez  W.  Huntington,  for  the  reason  that  he  was  then  a  young  man 
and  had  not.  by  any  means,  reached  the  high  standing  which  he 
afterwards  attained.  He  was  engaged  in  very  many  of  the  cases 
tried,  but  very  often  as  a  volunteer  in  aid  '^f  some  young  beginner 
who  had  sought  liis  help,  which  under  such  circumstances  he  was 
always  willing  to  render.  For  the  same  reason  I  have  omitted  the 
late  Chief  Justice  Church  because  he  was  then  just  beginning  to 
obtain  a  good  professional  standing,  and  was  called  to  the  bench  of 
the  Supreme  Court  which  he  afterwards  greatly  adorned  before  he 
had  obtained  tlie  high  rank  as  a  lawyer  which  otherwise  surely 
awaited  him. 


Sedgwick's  aodress  87 


NOAH   B.    BENEDICT. 


From  my  best  recollection  of  the  standing  of  the  first  lawyers 
at  the  bar  in  those  olden  times,  I  am  inclined  to  award  the  first  place 
as  an  advocate  to  Xoah  B.  Benedict.  He  had  every  advantage  which 
a  fine  personal  appearance  could  give  him,  not  very  tall,  but  well 
proportioned,  with  a  countenance  of  great  beauty,  indicating  kind- 
ness of  feeling  and  intelligence  of  mind.  His  arguments  produced 
conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  triers  more  by  insinuation  than  by 
iin/^rcssio)i.  He  was  earnest,  but  seldom  impassioned,  mild  and 
winning  in  his  manner,  and  thus  worked  his  way  as  by  stealth  to 
the  heart  and  convictions  of  the  court  and  jury.  I  remember  a  case 
on  trial  in  which  he  was  opposed  by  Boardman  ;  and  Benedict,  who 
was  for  the  defendant  on  the  trial,  contested  the  points  inch  by  inch 
as  thev  arose  in  the  case.  During;  an  intermission  some  one  asked 
lioardman  how  they  were  getting  along  with  their  case.  He  replied 
impatiently,  "Not  very  well.  Benedict  is  as  ingenious  as  the  devil 
can  make  him,  and  he  plagues  us  to  death."  He  was  engaged  in 
nearly  all  the  important  cases  tried  in  all  the  courts,  and  his  practice 
was  extensive  in  Xew  Haven  and  Fairfield  counties.  He  attended 
the  session  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Litchfield  in  1831  and  argued 
several  cases,  but  left  on  account  of  illness  before  the  term  closed. 
In  a  short  time  I  heard  he  was  dead.  He  had  reached  the  age  of 
sixty-one  vears.  In  the  case  of  Fairman  vs.  Bacon  the  last  case 
but  one  which  Mr.  Benedict  argued.  Judge  Daggett,  in  giving  the 
opinion  of  the  court,  pays  the  following  tril)ute  to  his  memory:  "I 
have,  in  this  opinion,  made  great  use  of  a  brief  furnished  by  the  late, 
lamented  Mr.  Benedict,  because  I  found  it  presented  the  argument 
in  that  terse,  yet  luminous  view  of  which  that  gentleman  was  so 
conspicuous,  and  by  which  the  court  were  so  often  instructed  and 
enlishtened,  and  rarelv  more  so  than  in  this,  one  of  his  last  efiforts." 


.\SA    I'.ACOX. 


xA.sa  Bacon  was  a  native  of  Canterbury  and  came  to  Litchfield  as 
early  as  1806,  after  a  short  period  of  practice  at  East  Haven,  and, 
for  a  while,  was  a  partner  of  Judge  Gould.  In  1820  he  had  become 
a  leading  spirit  at  the  bar.  He  had  a  fine  personal  appearance,  being- 
tall  and  well  proportioned,  and  usually  richly  dressed.  The  first 
time  I  saw  him  before  the  jury  his  head  was  well  cased  in  powder 
and  pomatum,  and  a  long  queue  was  dangling  at  his  back;  but  he 
soon  laid  aside  this  conformity  to  old  time  fashions,  although  he  was 
the  last  member  of  the  bar  to  do  so.  He  was  undoubtedly  a  very 
hard  student,  and  his  briefs  were  the  result  of  extensive  and  faithful 
studv,  but  was  after  all  an  interesting  speaker.     He  would  sometimes 


88  I^lTClimiiLD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

interlude  his  arg-uments  with  specimens  of  droller\-  and  tlashes  of 
wit,  and  the  expectation  that  these  would  be  put  forth  secured  a  very 
strict  attention  from  all  his  hearers.  He  frequently  quoted  passages 
of  scri]:)ture,  and  commented  upon  them,  not  always  irreverently, 
but  sometimes  with  rather  unbecoming  levity.  He  was  a  mortal 
enemy  of  universal  suffrage,  and  once  in  commenting  upon  the  para- 
ble of  talents  he  called  the  bailee  of  one  talent  who  had  hid  it  in 
the  earth  a  universal  siiffraj^c  inaii.  He  was  a  genial,  jolly,  com- 
panionable man,  and  alth(jugh  not  addicted  to  excessive  liberality 
in  his  benefactions,  still  kept  himself  in  good  standing"  while  he  re- 
mained here.  When  he  had  reached  the  age  of  sixty  years  he  was 
ap])ointed  president  of  the  Branch  of  the  Phoenix  Bank,  located  in 
Litchtield.  and  after  that  was  never  seen  professionally  "engaged  in 
Court.  The  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  Xew  Haven  where 
he  died  at  a  very  advanced  age. 


GENERAL  STERLING 

General  Elisha  Sterling  was  a  native  of  L\me  and  a  graduate  of 
Yale  College  in  the  class  of  1787.  He  studied  law  with  the  Hon. 
John  Canfield  of  Sharon,  who  was  his  father-in-law,  and  settled  in 
Salisbury  in  1791.  He  was  a  man  of  high  order  of  talent,  and  had 
he  addressed  himself  solely  to  professional  points  would  probably 
have  stood  at  the  head  of  the  bar  in  this  county.  lUit  he  loved 
money  and  gave  nuich  of  his  time  to  different  kinds  of  business, 
and  acquired  great  wealth  for  those  times.  Notwithstanding"  this 
propensity  he  had  an  extensive  practice  and  was  engaged  in  niost  of 
the  cases  coming  from  the  northern  portions  of  the  county.  He 
was  a  ready  speaker,  not  very  select  in  the  choice  of  words  and 
not  eloquent  by  any  established  rule  of  elocution,  but  there  was  a 
kind  of  impetuosity  in  his  manner,  accompanied  by  a  rapid  but  dis- 
tinct utterance  of  language  which  gave  him  popularity  as  an  advo- 
cate. He  was  appointed  State's  Attorney  in  1814.  and  held  the 
office  six  years  when  Seth  P.  Beers,  Esq.,  was  appointed  in  his  place. 
He  retired  from  practice  soon  after,  and  died  in  1836.  at  the  age  of 
seventy-two  years.  His  wealth  enabled  him  to  indulge  the  stroui^ 
taste  he  had  for  a  handsome  style  of  living  and  equipage,  and  in 
that  direction  his  mind  had  strong  aristocratical  tendencies. 


jriK.E    BOARDIMAN 

David  S.  Boardman   was  a  native  of  Xew  Milford  and  settled 
there  in  llie  practice  of  law  after  his  admission  to  tiie  bar  in   1795. 


sedcwick's  address  89 

He  was  a  man  of  retiring  disposition,  in  no  way  giving  showy  dis- 
play of  his  powers,  but  he  was  a  finished  legal  scholar,  and  was 
deemed  a  verv  safe  and  prudent  professional  adviser.  He  had  a  very 
nice  literary  taste,  and  the  least  granimatical  blunder  by  a  judge  or 
lawver  attracted  his  attention  and  frequently  his  ridicule.  His  argu- 
ments were  pointed  specimens  of  perspicuity,  precision  and  force, 
but  he  failed  to  attract  much  attention  as  an  advocate  through  a 
defect  of  vocal  power.  His  voice  was  feeble  and  could  scarcely 
be  heard  except  by  those  who  were  near  him.  He  had  a  high  char- 
acter for  moral  rectitude,  and  his  four  or  five  years  service  at  the 
head  of  the  County  Court  gave  it  a  dignity  and  moral  power  which 
in  other  vears  it  had  scarcely  obtained.  Sketches  from  his  pen, 
descriptive  of  some  of  the  members  of  the  bar  in  this  County  of  the 
last  century  were  published  in  one  of  our  county  papers,  some 
twenty  vears  ago,  and  they  are  of  the  deepest  interest  to  those  whose 
tastes  lead  them  in  that  direction  of  historic  inquiry.  They  were 
originally  in  letters  written  to  myself,  and  were  afterwards  with  his 
consent  prepared  for  the  press  and  published  in  the  paper  and  in 
pamphlet  form.  He  was  a  College  classmate  of  Asa  Bacon  and 
thev  were  warm  personal  friends.  He  lived  to  the  great  age  of 
ninetv-seven  vears. 


PJIIXIvAS    .MIXKR. 


IMiineas  Miner,  the  last  because  the  youngest  of  the  class  of 
lawyers  to  whom  I  have  referred  deserves  a  much  more  extended 
notice  than  I  shall  be  able  to  give  him.  His  amiable  and  genial 
temper  as  a  man  seemed  to  make  him  very  popular  as  a  lawyer. 
Fidelity  to  his  client  and  a  laborious  attention  to  their  interests  was 
a  marked  trait  in  liis  professional  career.  He  commenced  i)ractice 
in  Winchester,  his  native  town,  and  had  there  acquired  a  good  stand- 
ing in  his  profession  when  he  came  to  Litchfield  in  1816.  He  had 
an  extensive  practice  and  was  noted  for  the  diligence  with  which 
he  pressed  everv  point,  however  unimportant,  which  could  be  made 
to  tell  in  favor  of  his  client.  His  arguments  were  generally  ex- 
tended to  a  great  length,  and  I  have  known  him  to  receive  a  gentle 
hint  from  the  Judge  recommending  a  condensation  of  his  thoughts. 
He  died  in  1839  at  the  age  of  sixty  years,  and  Air.  Day,  the  Reporter, 
gives  a  flattering  estimate  of  hin:  in  a  foot  note  on  the  134th  page 
of  the  13th  volume  of  Connecticut  Reports. 

I  am  now  to  speak  of  a  class  of  lawyers,  much  younger  than  those 
to  whom  I  have  already  referred,  but  who  had  obtained  a  good 
standing  at  the  bar  fifty  years  ago. 


90  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND  BAR 

WILLIAM    G.    WILLIAMS. 

Of  New  Hartford,  stood  as  hig-h  as  any  member  of  this  class.  He 
belonged  to  the  eminent  and  reputable  \Villiams  family  of  Massachu- 
setts, his  father  being  a  nephew  of  Colonel  Ephriam  Williams  the 
founder  of  Williams  College,  and  himself  the  first  cousin  of  Bishop 
Williams  of  the  Episcopal  Church  of  Connecticut.  As  a  special 
pleader  he  had  no  superior  at  the  bar.  He  had  a  tolerably  fair  stand- 
ing as  an  advocate,  and  was  indefatigable  in  pursuing  to  the  last 
possible  effort  any  purpose  he  had  undertaken.  If  he  failed  in  one 
form  of  action  he  would  try  another,  and  never  gave  up  till  further 
persistence  was  hopeless.  He  commenced  business  as  a  lawyer  in 
Sharon,  where  he  married,  but  after  a  few  years  he  removed  to  New 
Hartford,  where  he  remained  during  his  life.  He  had  scarcely 
reached  the  age  of  sixty  years  when  he  died. 


JOHN    STRONG,    JR., 

Of  Woodbury,  his  native  town,  was  a  lawyer  of  very  fair  standing. 
I  remember  once  to  have  heard  Judge  Roardman  say,  that  if  he 
found  John  Strong  differing  from  himself  on  a  point,  he  always 
doubted  the  correctness  of  his  own  conclusions.  He  was  a  ready 
speaker  and  had  a  peculiar  habit  of  looking  all  over  the  hall,  fre- 
quently directly  behind  himself,  while  he  was  addressing  the  jury. 
His  arguments  were  clear  and  logical,  and  he  was  always  listened  to 
by  the  court  with  attention.  He  had  scarcely  reached  the  age  of 
fiftv  vears  when  he  died. 


CALNIN    BUTLER, 


Of  Plymouth,  had  a  very  good  reputation  as  a  lawyer.  He  also 
stood  well  with  his  fellow  citizens  of  Plymouth,  as  he  was  often  a 
member  of  the  legislature,  and  he  was  of  the  convention  of  this 
state.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Senate  in  1832.  He  had  a  part 
in  all  cases  which  came  from  that  town  and  managed  a  trial  very 
well.  He  was  earnest  in  his  manner  of  addressing  the  jury,  and  he 
was  in  full  jiractice  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  when  he  had 
reached  the  age  of  seventy-two  years.  He  died  suddenly,  while 
away  from  home,  and  left  behind  a  good  record  as  a  faithful  law- 
yer and  an  honest  man. 


CYRUS   SWAN, 


Of  Stonington,  came  to  the  bar  of  this  county  in  1798.     He  settled 
in  Sharon,  and  continued  in  full  practice  for  twenty  years.     He  was 


Sedgwick's  address  91 

appointed  a  judge  of  the  county  court  in  1818.  and  reappointed  for 
the  succeeding-  year,  but  resigning  the  office  before  the  close  of  the 
term.  His  health  becoming  intolerant  of  sedentary  habits  and  re- 
quiring out-door  pursuits,  he  never  resumed  full  practice,  although 
he  occasionally  appeared  in  trials  where  his  old  friends  demanded 
his  aid.  His  arguments  were  clear,  sound  and  sensible,  and  were 
listened  to  with  attention.  His  mind  was  well  stored  with  sound 
legal  maxims  and  his  aim  seemed  to  be  to  make  a  sensible  applica- 
tion of  these  to  the  case  in  hand.  He  died  in  1835  at  the  age  of 
sixtv-five  vears. 


ANSEL   STEKLlXii. 


A  younger  brother  of  the  General,  with  whom  he  studied  law, 
settled  first  in  Salisbury,  but  in  1808  went  to  Sharon,  where  he  spent 
his  life.  His  talents  were  diversified,  addicting  himself  readily  to 
anv  pursuit  which  was  a  source  of  money  making,  in  which  he  was 
very  successful.  As  a  lawyer,  his  forensic  ability  was  of  high 
order,  nor  was  he  deficient  in  legal  science.  His  language  flowed 
readily  and  rapidly,  and  sometimes  his  appeals  to  the  jviry  were  very 
effective.  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  for  two  terms,  and  did 
not  conceal  his  disappointment  that  he  was  not  nominated  for  the 
third.  That  compliment  was  afiforded  him  two  years  later,  but  he 
was  defeated  by  Orange  Merwin  whom  the  federalists  had  placed 
on  their  ticket.  He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-two  years,  leaving  a 
large  estate  and  a  numerous  family. 


JOSEPH    MILLER, 


Of  Winsted,  who  died  recently  in  Michigan  at  a  very  advanced  age. 
was  a  man  of  moral  talent  and  of  a  higher  order  of  legal  acquire- 
ments than  he  usually  had  credit  for.  After  the  removal  of  Mr. 
Miller  to  Litchfield,  his  practice  was  large  and  continued  to  be  so  for 
several  years.  His  arguments  were  short,  compact  and  logical, 
and  w«re  listened  to  with  attention  and  interest.  In  middle  life  he 
removed  to  ^vlichigan,  where  he  had  a  prosperous  career. 


WILLL\iI    M.    BURRALL, 


A  native,  and  through  life  a  resident,  of  Canaan,  was  a  lawyer  of 
very  extensive  practice  in  one  branch  of  business.  He  commenced 
a  great  manv  cases  to  the  court,  but  never  argued  one  on  the  final 


92  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY    BEXCII   AND    i'.AR 

trial.  He  would  sometimes  argue  motions  for  continuance,  or  for 
other  purposes,  and  his  success  on  such  occasions  showed  that  he 
had  underrated  his  own  powers.  Although  he  did  not  argue  his 
cases  he  was  the  master  spirit  in  managing  all  the  details  of  the  trial, 
in  what  order  witnesses  should  he  called,  and  the  points  of  testi- 
mony brought  out.  His  associates  depended  greatly  on  his  skill 
in  conducting  this  part  of  the  proceedings.  He  had  a  kind,  affable 
and  winning  way  in  his  social  intercourse,  and  his  offices  were  em- 
ployed in  adjusting  and  settling  legal  controversies.  He  acted  as 
committee  and  arbitrator  in  more  cases  than  any  other  member  of 
the  bar  of  his  time,  and  if  a  desire  to  make  himself  as  indifferent  as 
possible  to  all  parties  sometimes  seemed  to  hold  him  back  from  de- 
cisive action,  he  always,  in  the  end,  showed  true  firmness  and  in- 
tegrity. He  was  an  associate  judge  of  the  County  Court  from  1829 
to  1836,  and  after  that  chief  judge  for  ten  years.  He  died  at  the 
age  of  seventy-seven  years. 


COLONEL  AVILLIA.M    COC.CSWELL, 

Of  New  Preston,  a  very  worthy  and  respectable  gentleman,  was  a 
member  of  the  bar  and  was  very  seldom  absent  from  the  courts, 
He  never  engaged  in  the  trial  of  a  case,  and  very  seldom  spoke  to 
the  bench,  but  he  was  always  a  busy  man  in  the  court  room.  He  was 
one  of  the  electors  who  cast  the  vote  of  Connecticut  for  John  Ouincy 
Adams  for  President  in  1824.  He  died  before  he  had  reached  a  very 
advanced  age. 


SETH    1'.    BEERS. 


When  I  came  to  the  bar  in  1820.  Seth  P.  Beers,  Esq.,  was  in  full 
practice.  He  was  appointed  State's  Attorney  soon  after,  but  resign- 
ed in  three  years,  having  been  appointed  Commissioner  of  the 
School  Fund,  which  office  he  held  for  twenty-five  years.  I  have 
heard  him  sav  that  some  terms  of  the  Court  he  had  commenced  as 
many  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  cases,  and  he  was  very  thorough  in 
all  matters  committed  to  his  trust.  His  talents  as  an  advocate  were 
respectable,  his  briefs  being  very  full  and  his  knowledge  of  every 
minute  point  being  very  complete.  Tt  is  hardly  necessary  to  speak 
further  of  him  as  he  lived  down  to  a  ])eri()d  within  the  memory  of 
most  of  those  who  are  present. 


PERRV  S.MITII, 


Of  Xew  Milford,  held  a  somewhat  prominent  place  at  the  bar  and 
his  practice  was  extensive.     So  many  diff'erent  estimates  have  been 


SETH  P.  BEERS 


SEDGWICK  S    ADDRESS  93 

made  of  Mr.  Smith's  real  qualities,  that  it  is  difficult  to  speak  of  him 
with  any  very  strong  assurance  of  correctness.  That  he  had  talents 
and  friends  the  success  he  achieved  both  as  a  lawyer  and  a  politician 
render  certain,  but  those  who  remember  the  time  of  his  professional 
experience,  here,  know  that  he  had  enemies,  and  such  would  be  the 
natural  result  of  the  unrelenting  bitterness  with  which  he  pursued 
his  adversaries  in  his  efforts  before  the  courts.  There  was  a  bitter- 
ness in  his  invectives,  a  persistence  in  his  persecutions,  an  implaca- 
bility in  his  enmities,  wliich  gave  a  decided  character  to  his  pro- 
fessional career,  and  which  insured  him  the  enmity  of  all  against 
whom  his  efforts  were  directed.  He  was  always  listened  to  with  a 
kind  of  inquisitiveness  as  to  what  new  fountain  of  bitterness  he 
would  open,  or  what  new  invectives  he  would  invent  to  pour  out 
upon  his  adversary.  These  were  sometimes  directed  against  the 
opposing  party,  and  upon  the  whole  he  incurred  a  great  amount  of 
hatred.  I  am  only  speaking  of  what  occurred  in  court,  and  express- 
ing tlie  opinion  which  we  would  form  in  witnessing  his  professional 


'to 


conflicts.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  he  had  many  friends  and  sup- 
porters outside  of  this  scene  of  action  and  it  is  not  likely  that  he  was 
as  warm  and  constant  in  his  friendship  as  he  was  bitter  and  unre- 
lenting in  his  hatreds.  After  his  election  to  the  United  States  Senate 
he  retired  from  tlie  bar  and  was  very  seldom  seen  here. 


ROCER    -MILLS 


Of  New  Hartford,  was  at  one  time  a  partner  of  Mr.  Williams,  of 
whom  we  have  already  spoken,  from  whom  he  differed  in  every  re- 
spect except  that  both  held  the  position  of  honorable  and  worthy 
gentlemen.  ]\Ir.  Mills  was  slow  in  his  conception  of  thoughts,  slow 
in  all  the  movements  of  mind,  and  very  slow  in  his  delivery  of  his 
arguments,  and  vet  when  all  his  duties  in  a  case  were  accomplished 
it  would  be  seen  that  he  had  made  a  creditable  effort  and  that  he 
was  far  from  being  a  lawyer  of  indiff'erent  pretensions.  His  son  of 
the  same  name  succeded  him  in  the  practice  of  law  at  New  Hartford, 
but  has  since  moved  to  Wisconsin  where  he  has  had  a  successful 
career. 


MICHAEL   F.   MILLS 


Of  Norfolk,  was  a  somewhat  prominent  member  at  the  bar.  not 
because  he  had  verv  much  legal  ability,  but  because  he  had  the  tact 
to  make  much  show  out  of  little  substance.  He  never  attempted  to 
argue  cases  in  the  higher  courts,  but  on  the  trial  of  motions  as  they 
came  before  the  Courts,  he  was  very  prominent.     We  all  thought 


94  LITCHFIELD   COUXTV    BENCH   AND   BAR 

well  of  Uncle  Mich,  as  we  used  to  call  him  and  so  did  the  people 
of  Norfolk,  for  he  was  always  a  prominent  man  in  the  affairs  of  the 
town.  He  was  a  member  of  the  lej:(islature  in  1830  and  183 1,  and 
there  made  himself  conspicuous  in  the  same  way  he  did  before  the 
courts.     He  lived  to  a  very  advanced  age. 


CHARLES  B.   PHELPS 

Settled  in  Woodbury  soon  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  nearly 
sixty  years  ago.  He  continued  in  practice  while  he  lived.  He 
died  suddenly,  from  a  disease  of  the  heart,  at  the  age  of  seventy-two 
years.  He  held  a  respectable  position  as  a  lawyer  and  for  two  years 
was  a  judge  of  the  County  Court,  while  that  court  was  holden  by  a 
single  judge.  All  who  knew  him  have  a  very  pleasant  memory  of 
his  genial  hnmor,  pertinent  anecdotes,  and  witty  and  pungent  say- 
ings. The  younger  members  of  the  bar  were  delighted  with  his  com- 
pany and  all  deeply  deplored  his  sudden  death. 


MATTHEW    MINOR 

Of  Woodbury,  was  a  lawyer  of  good  classical  education  and  respect- 
able legal  attainments.  He  had  a  native  diffidence,  which  prevented 
him  ]nttting  himself  forward,  very  often  on  the  trial  of  cases,  but 
wdien  his  powers  were  brought  out  he  made  a  respectable  show. 
He  belonged  to  one  of  the  eminent  families  of  Woodbury  and  for 
personal  qualities  was  very  much  respected. 


NATHANIEL    i'.     I'l'.I^RV 

Of  Kent,  was  a  ([uiet,  unobtrusive,  conscientious  man.  He  was  the 
only  lawyer  in  that  town  during  the  greater  part  of  his  professional 
life,  and  did  a  good  local  business.  He  was  very  diligent  in  the  pur- 
suit of  his  profession  and  generally  argued  the  cases  that  he  com- 
menced. He  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  for  two  successive  years 
and  died  at  the  age  of  about  sixty  years. 


HOLBROOK   CURTIS 


Was  a  native  of  Newtown  but  practiced  law  in  Watertown.     He 
was  a  judge  of  the  County  Court  for  two  years  was  frequently  a 


JUDGE  C.  B.  PHEI^PS 


Sedgwick's  address  95 

member  of  the  legislature,  where  he  had  a  good  share  of  influence. 
He  was  usually  chairman  of  the  committee  on  divorces  and  his  re- 
ports in  such  cases  were  very  interesting.  He  was  a  man  of  good 
common  sense  and  acquitted  himself  creditably  as  a  judge,  but  his 
powers  failed  with  his  advancing  life  and  he  lived  for  several  years 
in  comparative  obscurity. 


ISAAC     LEANEXWORTll     AND    ROVAL     R.     ItlX.MAX. 

There  were  two  lawyers  in  Roxbury  fifty  years  ago.  Isaac  Leaven- 
worth and  Royal  R.  Hinman.  who  made  a  considerable  show  of  busi- 
ness before  the  courts,  but  who  retired  from  practice  in  the  course 
of  a  few  vears.  Wv.  Leavenworth  went  into  other  business  in  New 
Haven  where  it  is  said  he  has  been  very  successful  and  is  still  living 
at  a  verv  advanced  age.  Mr.  Hinman  held  the  office  of  Sec- 
retarv  of  State  for  eight  years,  and  published  several  panii)hlets  con- 
taining the  statistics  of  many  of  the  most  prominent  families  in  the 
state. 


josKT'TT  TT.  nKT,r.\:\rY 

Of  Bethlehem,  deserves  more  than  a  jiassing  tribute.  He  was  a 
grandson  of  the  celebrated  divine  of  that  name  and  was  a  man  of 
great  moral  worth.  He  never  had  a  very  extensive  practice  as  a 
lawyer,  but  was  much  imployed  in  various  branches  of  public  busi- 
ness. He  was  frequently  a  member  of  the  legislature,  and  once  re])- 
resented  the  sixteenth  district  in  the  Senate.  He  died  in  middle 
life,  and  all,  of  all  names  and  parties.  i)ay  him  the  tribute  of  an 
affectionate  and  respectable  remembrance. 


THEODORE    XoKTTI 

Of  Goshen,  his  native  town,  removed  to  Chenango  County,  N.  Y., 
about  1823.  He  graduated  at  \\'illiams  College  in  1806  with  the 
highest  honors  of  his  class.  He  was  a  remarkably  well  read  lawyer, 
and  had  a  respectable  standing  as  an  advocate.  He  attained  to 
eminence  in  liis  profession  in  the  State  of  Xew  York.  He  died 
some  twenty  vears  since. 


g6  LiTCJJFiKLD   LULXTV    BENCH   AXD   BAR 

YOUNG   MEMBERS   OE    THE    BAR. 

In  1820  there  were  several  young  members  of  the  bar  who  had 
just  commenced  practice,  some  of  whom  afterwards  became  eminent, 
and  two  of  them,  Truman  Smith,  and  his  cousin  Nathaniel  P>.  Smith 
still  survive.  Besides  these  there  were  George  Wheaton,  Leman 
Churcli.  David  C.  Sanford,  Nathaniel  Perry  of  New  ^Nlilford,  and 
William  S.  Holabird.  These  all  lived  to  a  period  within  the  memory 
of  many  now  in  practice  here.  Perry  died  at  an  earlier  date  than 
either  of  the  others  and  left  a  family,  but  he  was  still  a  young  man 
when  he  was  called  away.  Sanford  became  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  was  greatly  respected  for  his  eminent  fitness  for  the  place. 
Wheaton  was  celebrated  for  the  great  skill  with  which  he  prepared 
his  cases  for  trial,  and  his  arguments,  homely  in  style,  and  common- 
place in  method,  were  listened  to  with  great  attention.  They  were 
often  charged  with  dry  shots  of  wit  which  told  upon  his  adversary 
and  excited  merriment  with  the  bar. 


LEMAN    CHURCH 


Obtained  quite  a  celebrity  for  his  legal  acumen  and  sharp  points  of 
character.  If  a  lawyer  is  to  be  deemed  successful  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  cases  in  which  he  wins  he  was  far  from  being  a 
successful  lawyer.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  spirit  of  forensic 
combativeness,  which  seemed  to  possess  the  whole  man,  led  him 
sometimes  to  advise  groundless  prosecutions  and  to  encourage 
groundless  defences.  He  wanted  to  fight,  no  matter  whether  for 
the  right  or  wrong,  and  the  consequence  was  that  he  lost  more 
cases  in  proportion  to  the  whole  number  in  which  he  was  engaged 
than  any  other  lawyer  at  the  bar.  Still,  nobody  could  deny  that  he 
possessed  eminent  shrewdness  and  sagacity  as  a  lawyer,  as  well  as 
forensic  ability  of  very  high  order. 


WILLIAM    S.    HOLABIRD. 

/v  native  of  Canaan,  practiced  in  Colebrook.  but  spent  most  of  his 
life  in  Winsted.  He  possessed  talents  which  might  have  given  him 
prominence  and  distinction  as  a  lawyer  had  he  devoted  himself 
strictly  to  professional  avocations,  but  he  addicted  himself  more  to 
other  pursuits  than  to  that.  He  was  Lieutenant  Governor  for  two 
years,  and  for  a  short  time  United  States  Attorney  for  the  District 
of  Connecticut,  and  I  never  heard  any  complaint  of  his  want  of  fit- 
ness for  either  position.  He  experienced  various  fortunes  in  his 
worldly   aflfairs.   being   sometimes   poor   and    sometimes    rich.        At 


TRUMAX   SMITH 


SKuc. wick's  adi:)KESS  97 

his  death,  which  occurred  soon  after  he  reached  the  age  of  fifty 
years,  he  left  a  handsome  estate  to  his  famih'. 


There  were  a  few  young  members  of  the  bar  in  1820  who  died 
after,  a  short  career,  some  of  whom  were  probably  never  heard  of 
b\-  the  members  of  this  generation.  Their  names  now  occur  to  me: 
Homer  Swift  of  Kent:  Philo  X.  Heacock  of  New  Milford ;  and 
Chauncey  Smith  of  Sharon.  These  started  in  professional  life  with 
ardent  hopes  and  fair  prospects  of  success,  but  their  career  was  soon 
cut   short  bv  death. 


CEOKC.K    S.    BOARDitAX, 

Son  of  the  Hon.  Elijali  lUjardman  of  Xew  Milford.  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  182 1.  He  was  a  young  man  of  decided  promise  and 
was  a  special  favorite  of  his  uncle  Judge  Boardman.  When  I  visit 
Xew  Milford  I  observe,  still  standing,  the  brick  fire  proof  office 
which  his  father  built  for  him,  but  he  lived  only  a  few  months  after 
taking  possession  of  it,  and  his  death  was  greatly  lamented  through- 
out the  comnnmity.  His  efforts  at  the  bar  gave  proof  of  decided 
talent  and  he  had  made  himself  a  special  favorite  among  the  mem- 
bers. 


coxcLrsioxs. 


The  whole  history  of  this  bar  for  the  last  fifty  years,  teems  with 
l)leasant  recollections.  As  a  whole,  it  has  a  reputation  for  high 
toned  integrity  and  professional  comity  among  its  members  wiiich 
is  very  much  to  its  credit.  If  there  have  been  instances  of  profes- 
sional delinquency,  they  have  been  so  rare  as  to  have  made  no  mark 
on  the  record  of  the  times. 

I  have  now  spoken,  to  as  great  an  extent  as  the  time  will  allow, 
of  the  men  who  flourished  in  this  temple  of  justice  fifty  years  ago. 
I  have  no  time  to  give  expression  to  thoughts  which  come  up,  with 
great  urgency  for  utterance,  upon  such  an  occasion  as  this,  or  to 
review  the  history  of  the  last  fifty  years  in  any  other  relation  than 
those  which  appertain  to  the  administration  of  justice  here.  The 
progress  of  human  aft'airs  during  that  period,  towards  their  final  con- 
summation, has  been  marked  with  great  changes  and  vicissitudes. 
What  shall  be  their  development  during  the  fifty  years  to  come,  can 
be  of  very  little  personal  interest  to  me.  I  cherish  the  hope  that 
this  bench  will  continue  to  be  occupied  by  judges  of  integrity,  ability 
and  of  high  judicial  aptitudes,  and  that  this  bar  will  continue  to  be 
adorned  with  members  whose  pure  lives  and  eminent  attainments 
shall  make  their  position  one  of  honor  and  usefulness. 


98  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

Standing  here  alone,  the  only  member  of  this  bar  who  has  been 
in  practice  for  fifty  years,  I  take  pleasure  in  expressing  to  my 
brethren  of  more  recent  experience  the  deepest  gratitude  for  the 
l^leasant  and  friendly  relations  they  have  permitted  me  to  enjoy  with 
them  during  the  whole  of  our  acquaintance.  By  their  kind  amenities 
and  the  favor  of  the  judges,  the  rays  of  my  evening  sun  have  fallen 
upon  me  softer  than  did  those  of  my  noonday.  These  precious 
remembrances  will  remain  with  me  as  long  as  1  have  consciousness, 
and  in  conclusion  I  say  to  my  brethren,  not  as  a  thoughtless  wish, 
but  as  an  honest  prayer — may  God  bless  you,  each  and  all. 


arnet's  S^miniaencea 


REMINISCENCES 


OF  THE 


LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BAR 


DELIVERED  AT  THE 


CENTENNIAL  BANQUET 


NOVEMBER  18,  1898 


BY 


HON.  DONALD  J.  WARNER 


DONALD   J.    WARNER 


Reminiscences  of  Litchfield  County  Bar. 


I\rr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  Bar.  I  thank  you  all  sin- 
cerely that  I  am  permitted  to  be  present  on  this  occasion,  and  the 
effort  would  require  better  language  than  I  can  express  to  tell  you 
of  my  gratitude  at  your  kind  reception. 

If  I  understand  the  purport  of  what  is  expected  of  me  on  this 
evening  it  is  that  I  shall  give  my  reminiscences  of  the  Bar,  of  the 
sa}'ings  and  doings  of  the  dead  who  have  passed  before  me.  As  a 
preliminary  matter  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  an  earlier  period 
in  ni}'  life  in  relation  to  the  great  inroads  made  by  the  Legislature 
of  the  State  of  Connecticut- upon  the  ancient  laws.  Fifty  years 
ago  last  April,  through  a  rupture  in  the  democratic  party  in  Salis- 
bury to  which  I  belonged,  a  faction.  I  ought  to  say.  not  being  identi- 
fied with  either,  but  attending  to  my  own  business  rather  than  to  any 
political  aspirations,  I  was  urged  to  stand  for  the  nomination  for 
representative  to  the  House :  I  did  so,  was  elected  and  became  a 
member  of  the  Legislature  which  held  its  session  in  May,  1849. 
Fortunately  or  unfortunately  1  was  elected,  in  my  29th  year,  although 
at  that  time  I  was  considered  a  very  youthful  man  to  legislate  for  the 
people  of  the  State  of  Connecticut.  Lafayette  Foster,  the  distin- 
guished gentleman,  state  senator  and  judge  of  the  Superior  Court, 
was  the  Speaker  of  the  House ;  Hon.  Charles  J.  McCurcly  afterwards 
minister  to  Austria  and  a  judge  of  the  Superior  and  Supreme 
Courts,  was  Lieut.  Governor  and  presided  over  the  Senate.  I  was 
highly  honored,  without  any  solicitation  on  my  part,  by  being  ap- 
pointed on  the  Judiciary  Committee.  Of  course  I  had  to  go  to  the 
tail  end  of  it,  a  very  proper  place  for  me, 

Mr.  Huntington: — lUit  that  tail  wagged  the  dog. 

Mr.  Warner: — A\'ell,  1  will  tell  }'ou  about  the  dog  later.  In 
the  }ear  1847,  three  distinguished  men  in  this  state  had  been  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  revise  the  statutes  of  the  state.  That  com- 
mittee consisted  of  Governor  Minor,  afterwards  a  Superior  Court 
judge.  Judge  Loren  P.  Waldo  and  Francis  Fellowes,  a  lawyer,  keen 
and  shrewd,  of  Hartford,  on  that  committee.  The  very  first  thing 
that  was  referred  to  our  judiciary  committee  was  the  report  of  this 
revision  committee,  and  our  very  first  subject  were  the  details  of 
that  report.  They  appeared  before  us  at  our  first  sitting.  And  al- 
low me  to  say  right  here,  that  chief- justice  Butler  of  Nor  walk,  then 
state  senator,  was  the  chairman  of  that  judiciary  committee.  The 
revision  committee  had  drafted  one  or  two  laws  which  they  wished 
the  judiciary  committee  would  see  were  offered  in  the  Legislature 


IC.J  WARNKKS    KKMIXlSCEXtKS 

and  passed  so  that  it  might  be  incorporated  in  the  revision  which 
would  be  pubhshed  that  year. 

This  was  only  an  act  permitting  and  authorizing,  in  a  suit  between 
parties,  that  the  party  in  tpiestion  should  have  the  privilege  of  call- 
ing upon  the  opposite  party  as  a  witness  to  testify  to  the  facts  that 
he  might  inquire  about.  Judge  Waldo  was  also  on  the  judiciary 
committee,  repesenting  Tolland.  The  distinguished  William  \V. 
Eaton  was  his  colleague  in  the  House.  I,  being  the  first  at  the  tail 
end  of  the  committee,  was  called  upon  after  the  discussion  to  give 
my  opinion.  The  opinion  which  I  gave  I  had  a  long  time  under 
consideration  in  relation  to  the  law  of  witnesses  and  parties  inter- 
ested being  permitted  to  testify.  Chairman  lUitler  called  upon  me 
to  give  my  opinion.  I  said  distinctly,  ( it  was  in  the  presence  of  the 
revision  committee  also )  that  I  was  opposed  to  any  such  law.  They 
had  said  to  me  it  was  a  copy  of  an  Act  that  had  been  passed  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  a  recent  statute  there,  and  I  gave  my  reason 
as  being  opposed  to  it,  one  great  reason  was  this,  that  an  honest 
party  might  be  compelled  by  a  scoundrel  to  testify  to  a  fact  that 
would  be  damaging  to  him  unless  he  had  the  same  ability  to  testify 
himself.  And  1  was  in  favor  of  going  further,  I  was.  in  favor  of 
passing  an  Act  which  would  sweep  away  and  wipe  out  that  century- 
old  doctrine  and  permit  every  man,  party  or  interested  witness  in 
any  form,  to  tell  his  story  before  a  court  and  jury,  that  justice  might 
be  done.  I  said  further  "look  over  your  Connecticut  reports  and 
you  will  find  decision  after  decision  where  questions  have  gone  up 
to  the  Supreme  Court  to  ascertain  whether  there  was  a  shred  of 
interest  in  the  witness  that  testified  before  the  court.  I  said  to 
them  "we  have  the  action  of  account  in  which  witnesses  are  permitted 
to  testify  ;  we  have  the  action  of  book  debt  in  which  all  parties  may 
testify,  and  how  many  cases  will  you  find  in  the  reports  in  this  state 
where  the  question  is  laid  before  them  whether  an  action  which  was 
brought  in  book  debt  did  not  properly  belong  in  an  action  of  general 
assumpsit. 

Well,  the  next  gentleman  was  the  late  Hon.  John  P.  C.  Mather 
of  Xew  London  who  sat  at  my  right.  He  concurred  with  me,  and 
so  it  went  around  from  lawyer  to  lawyer  and  laymen,  we  had  an 
excellent  layman  there,  he  did  royal  work,  and  it  was  passed  unani- 
mously witli  the  exception  of  Judge  Waldo,  who  said:  "I  am  in 
favor  of  the  law,  but  we  tried  it  last  year  in  the  Legislature  and  it 
could  not  ])ass  and  the  people  are  not  ready  for  it.  and  I  have  con- 
cluded that  the  next  best  thing  to  do  is  to  adopt  the  law^  of  Xew 
York."  Well,  there  was  then  in  the  House  a  man  named  Peck  of 
Xew  Haven,  a  brilliant  man,  a  lawyer  by  education  and  a  leader 
of  the  Whig  side  ;  there  was  Trumbull,  later  Governor,  there  was 
the  elder  Charles  ChajMuan  who  were  leaders  from  Hartford,  there 
was  Chauncey  Cleveland,  Ex-Governor,  a  power  anywhere,  his  name 
and  his  fame  are  known  to  vou  all ;  tliere  was  William  W.  Eaton 


WARNER  S  REMIXISCENCES  lOj 

also.  Well,  I  was  finally  instructed  by  the  chairman.  Judge  Butler 
to  draw  up  a  bill  and  have  it  presented.  I  drew  the  bill  which 
was  introduced  in  the  House  or  Senate,  I  forget  which.  It  immedi- 
ately passed  the  judiciary  committee,  and  was  introduced  into  the 
House,  and  also  in  the  Senate.  It  lay  upon  the  table  sometime 
there  and  the  matter  was  often  cussed  and  discussed.  Judge  Button 
came  to  me  while  in  the  House  and  said  to  me  "Mr.  Warner,  every 
member  of  the  Superior  and  Supreme  Court  is  opposed  to  this  law, 
it  is  such  a  radical  change  that  they  think  a  great  injustice,  wrong, 
fraud  and  perjury  will  be  perpetrated  in  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice." I  said  "Well,  I  can't  help  that,  I  am  in  favor  of  it."  So  it 
went  along,  and  one  day  Judge  Dutton  came  to  me  in  my  seat  and 
said  to  me  "Mr.  Warner  do  you  intend  by  that  Act  that  a  criminal 
should  testify  in  Court?"  "By  no  means,  sir."  Dutton  said  "Well, 
he  has  a  right  to."  I  said  "No,  sir."  Well,  we  looked  at  it  and  he 
explained  it  to  me,  to  my  astonishment  I  felt  as  if  I  had  done  a  very 
wrong  thing,  that  I  had  disgraced  myself  by  drafting  a  bill  that 
extended  the  law  to  criminals,  and  I  looked  at  it  and  it  convinced 
me  that  he  was  right.  I  immediately  went  to  Chapman  in  his  seat 
and  told  what  Judge  Dutton  said  and  I  told  him  I  thought  it  per- 
mitted of  such  an  interpretation.  He  replied  "well,  it  does,  now 
what  shall  we  do?"  After  a  thought,  he  said  "Warner,  draw  an 
amendment,  when  it  comes  into  the  House,  just  move  an  amendment 
to  the  bill."  Well,  I  drew  the  amendment  and  soon  after  that  Chap- 
man came  to  me  hurriedly  and  said  "that  bill  has  only  passed  the 
Senate  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  Lieut. -Governor,  don't  you  intro- 
duce that  amendment,  don't  say  a  word,  unless  objection  is  made  in 
the  House,  and  then  you  can  offer  the  amendment."  The  bill  came 
into  the  House  passed  by  the  Senate  and  the  usual  formal  vote  was 
gone  through  with  and  the  bill  passed  in  the  House.  Chapman 
came  around  to  me  and  said  he  "Well,  Warner,  it  went  through 
like  grease."  Thus  was  passed  the  law  which  made  a  radical  change 
in  the  administration  of  justice  and  permitted  interested  parties  in 
criminal  as  well  as  civil  cases,  to  testify  in  their  own  behalf.  That 
law  I  consider  one  of  the  wisest  laws  that  was  ever  passed  by  this 
Legislature  and  the  roll  of  honor  for  it  stands  to  Connecticut,  and 
I  thank  God  that  some  of  its  labor  belonged  to  Litchfield  County. 

The  very  next  term  of  the  Superior  Court  in  Litchfield  County 
after  that  session  of  the  Legislature  was  held  in  August  and  pre- 
sided over  by  Judge  Church,  a  native  of  Salisbury  and  one  of  the 
best  lawvers  on  the  bench.  There  was  an  interesting  criminal  trial 
on  the  docket,  a  lawyer  of  prominence  from  New  York  and  Judge 
Seymour  were  the  prisoner's  counsel.  The  defendant  had  put  in 
his  evidence  when  Judge  Seymour  arose  and  said  to  his  Honor, 
"here  is  a  statute  passed  by  the  last  Legislature,  I  am  not  clear  in 
mv  own  mind  as  to  the  proper  interpretation  of  it,  whether  it  will 
permit  the  prisoner  to  testify  or  not,  but  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  he 


I04  UTCUFIELD   COUNTY    BlvN'CH   AND   BAR 

has  that  right,  and  I  submit  the  question  to  your  Honor  for  the 
purpose  of  determining-.'"  The  Judge  with  considerable  acerbity  of 
feeling  animadverted  upon  the  passage  of  that  law  as  cutting  up 
root  and  branch  of  the  old  principle  which  had  come  down  to  us 
and  which  no  one  had  conceived  ought  to  be  changed.  He  thought 
it  would  introduce  fraud  and  perjury  and  all  those  things  which  go 
to  outweigh  and  destroy  justice  as  administered  by  the  court.  Then 
Seymour,  after  the  judge  had  decided  that  the  prisoner  had  the 
right  to  testify,  said  to  the  States  Attorney  "Then  I  offer  you  this 
prisoner  to  testify,  I  don't  propose  to  ]nit  him  on  the  stand  for  he 
might  say  something  which  might  inadvertently  injure  his  case" 
and  that  was  a  shrewd  act  on  his  part.  The  States  Attorney  de- 
clined to  accept  it  and  the  prisoner  did  not  testify. 

Now  there  was  another  radical  change  and  overthrow  of  the  com- 
mon law  principle,  and  that  was  that  no  plea  in  abatement  of  a  suit 
brought  in  an  action  of  tort  should  bar  the  prosecution  of  it,  which 
was  in  effect  that  the  right  of  action  for  personal  injuries  survived. 
In  other  words,  that  the  executor  or  administrator  of  a  person  that 
had  deceased  could  continue  an  action  commenced  by  the  deceased. 
Well,  that  was  a  charitable  act,  but  too  radical  for  many  of  the 
lawyers,  but  it  passed  the  Leg'islature  and  no  one  has  seen  fit  since 
to  have  it  repealed. 

Now  I  will  tell  of  an  incident  which  I  heard  which  shows  the 
workings  of  the  old  law.  There  w'as  a  distinguished  lawver  bv  the 
name  of  Loomis  in  Bridgeport,  a  merry  fellow  full  of  fun,  and  there 
was  also  Dwight  ^lorris.  This  was  before  the  passage  of  the  law 
of  the  survival  of  actions  for  personal  injuries  and  before  the  law 
allowing  criminals  to  testify.  There  was  a  wayward  son  down  in 
Bridgeport  who  had  an  old,  warm,  kindliearted  father.  This  way- 
ward son  had  cost  the  old  man  many  hundreds  of  dollars' and  great 
grief.  He  had  recently  committed  some  tortious  act  and  he  was 
prosecuted  criminally  and  convicted  and  then  prosecuted  cfvilly  for 
damages  and  his  body  was  attached,  and  the  poor  old  father  gave 
bonds  for  his  a])pearance  at  Court. 

This  worthless  son  was  a  merry-go-round  fellow  and  he  began  to 
have  some  feelings  for  his  old  gray-headed  father,  who  was  in  great 
grief  and  sorrow  and  in  great  affliction;  his  money  w^as -nearly  ex- 
pended on  his  boy  who  was  so  wayward.  Well.  Dwight  Morris  was 
the  junior  counsel  who  was  most  familiar  with  the  case  that  had  to 
be  tried  at  the  approaching  term,  and  this  rollicking  fellow  came  into 
his  office  one  day  and  talked  over  the  case  and  the  facts  in  it,  how 
much  they  could  do  and  what  circumstances  would  mitigate  the 
damages. '  He  said  "Well,  now,  Morris,  supposing  I  should  die  be- 
fore that  case  comes  on;  would  that  have  any  effect  on  the  case?" 
Morris  said  "Why.  yes,  that  would  end  the  case."  This  son  then 
replied  "]->v  God,  I  guess  I  had  better  die  first."  Morris  said  "I 
think  that  is  a  damned  good  idea."     A  few  days  before  the  session 


WARNER  S  REMINISCENCES  IO5 

of  the  Court  Dwight  Morris  liurried  into  Loomis's  office  and  said 
"My  God,  Loomis,  I  guess  I  have  committed  murder."  "Why?" 
"Why  our  cHent  is  dead,  he  has  committed  suicide ;  he  came  into  my 
office  and  said  he  guessed  he  would  die  if  it  would  end  the  case," 
and  in  a  foolish  manner  I  said  "Why,  it  would  be  a  damned  good 
idea."  Well,  the  case  went  out.  the  poor  old  man's  money  was 
saved,  and  he  lost  his  son. 

It  is  a  well-established  fact  that  in  the  law  repealing  that  old 
common  law  which  prohibited  an  interested  witness  to  testify,  Con- 
necticut was  the  pioneer.  And  that  Westminster  Hall  in  England 
from  which  we  received  our  common  law  adopted  that  very  act  that 
was  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  1848.  And  from  there  it  has  e>;- 
tended  all  over  the  I'nited  States. 

Brethren.  I  commenced  reading  law  in  March,  1841,  under  the 
instructions  of  Hon.  John  H.  Hubbard  at  Lakeville,  and  I  spent  a 
portion  of  my  time  under  his  advice  at  Litchfield  so  that  I  might 
have  the  advantages  of  attending  Court  there,  and  under  the  in- 
struction of  the  Hon.  Origen  S.  Se_\'mour,  that  veneral)le  and  great 
man.  I  completed  my  studies  with  Mr.  Hubbard  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  at  the  August  term.  1843.  Xow  as  it  was  expected  of  me 
that  I  should  speak  of  the  lawyers  who  are  gone,  that  T  knew  when 
I  was  first  admitted  to  the  bar,  T  shall  go  in  routine  and  start  with 
my  native  town. 

Before  I  come  to  those  that  I  knew,  T  wish  to  speak  about  an- 
other man,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  law  in  the  town  of  Salisbury,  be- 
cause he  was  the  ancestor  of  a  very  distinguished  race  of  people, 
the  ancestor  of  that  prominent  man,  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  who  went  from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  and 
died  a  few  years  ago.  Adonijah  Strong  was  one  of  the  rough- 
est pieces  of  granite.  T  suiijiose,  that  ever  existed.  He  had  a  strong 
powerful  mind,  he  was  full  of  wit  and  humor,  he  was  illiterate,  but 
he  had  great  common  sense  and  he  had  great  force  and  ability  and 
effect'  upon  the  court  and  jury,  as  1  have  learned  by  tradition. 
Adonijah  had  a  peculiar  voice,  it  is  said,  and  he  had  a  good  old  wife 
by  the  name  of  Xabb\-,  and  a  great  many  stories  are  told  about  him. 
He  was  a  strong  man  and  belonged  to  the  Congregational  Church 
and  a  great  supporter  of  it.  There  was  another  colonel  there,  a 
distinguished  man.  Col.  Joshua  Porter.  He  was  the  ancestor  of 
distinguished  sons,  one  of  them  was  a  cabinet  officer  under  the 
presidency  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  Xow  about  the  time  that  the 
Methodist  people  organized  a  society  in  Salisbury  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  opposition  to  them.  I  guess  there  was  more  objection  to 
them  than  the  Salvation  Army  has  seen  in  these  later  days.  They 
held  a  meeting  in  my  old  school  district  on  Ore  Hill,  and  Col.  Strong 
and  Col.  Porter  had  made  up  their  minds  that  they  would  go  over 
there,  but  not  for  any  very  religious  purposes.  Well,  they  each 
had  a  ])eculiar  reputation.     Col.   Strong  had  the  reputation  of  im- 


I06  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

bibing  considerably  and  eating  heartily.  Col.  Porter  had  another 
reputation,  but  I  will  let  you  guess  what  that  was.  It  is  spoken  of 
in  the  Scriptures.  Well,  the  clergyman  who  was  to  officiate  on  that 
occasion  had  been  advised  and  Col.  Strong's  character  was  por- 
trayed and  so  was  Col.  Porter's.  They  went  in  and  sat  down,  and, 
as  I  said,  for  not  very  worthy  purposes,  and  after  a  while  the  clergy- 
man was  speaking  about  the  characteristics  of  different  individuals, 
and  he  said  "where  is  that  wine-bibber  and  a  glutton?"  Col.  Strong 
got  up  and  said  "here  I  am,  sir !"  and  sat  down.  The  next  thing 
the  preacher  said  when  speaking  of  the  wickedness  of  the  world, 
"and  where  is  he."  Col  Porter  sat  still.  Strong  said  "Col.  Porter, 
get  up  and  answer  to  your  name  as  I  did?" 

Now  I  will  come  to  those  whom  I  knew  in  Salisbury.  There  was 
John  G.  Mitchell  of  Salisbury,  I  believe  he  was  born  in  Southbury. 
He  came  from  a  very  pious  parentage  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
and  came  to  Salisbury  at  an  early  age.  He  was  not  an  educated 
man  academically  speaking,  he  was  rough  in  his  manners,  uncouth, 
but  he  always  maintained  a  reputation  of  a  man  of  the  highest 
integrity,  but  that  is  common  among  laywers  in  Litchfield  County. 
Everybody  esteemed  him.  He  had  in  his  office  a  very  few  books, 
old  and  musty,  but  he  was  a  trial  justice  and  judge  of  probate  after 
the  establishment  of  the  Salisbury  district.  He  was  also  connected 
in  merchandise  with  Mr.  Walton  under  the  firm  name  of  Walton  & 
Mitchell,  and  he  lived  to  an  advanced  age.  He  was  rough  and  un- 
couth, but  he  had  great  redeeming  traits.  Late  in  life  he  came 
under  the  influence  of  a  revival  in  the  village  in  Lakeville  and  be- 
came a  very  religious  man  to  the  astonishment  of  everybody. 

He  was  frequently  called  upon  to  speak  in  Methodist  and  re- 
ligious meetings,  he  attended  faithfully  always,  and  in  one  of  them 
he  spoke  of  how  they  should  work  and  toil  to  bring  men  into  the 
fold.  He  said  "brethren  and  sisters,  you  know  the  sharks  follow  the 
ship,  now  cast  your  nets  out  among  them  and  you  may  bring  in  a 
lawyer  as  they  brought  me  in."  On  another  occasion  he  was  speak- 
ing of  the  power  of  God,  and  talked  well  about  it  and  wound  up  by 
saying  "why  God  could  take  and  throw  me  right  through  this  meet- 
ing house,  but  he  won't  do  it." 

There  was  another  old  lawyer  there  when  I  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1843  who  gave  me  a  great  deal  of  good  advice?  He  ad- 
vised me  one  day  as  a  lawyer  "if  anybody  offers  you  anything,  take 
it,  if  it  is  nothing  but  a  chew  of  tobacco."  I  recollected  that  and 
always  took  one. 

Then  there  was  Philiander  Wheeler,  a  Yale  College  graduate,  an 
educated  man,  a  keen  bright  man,  full  of  wit  and  humor,  quick 
and  happy  in  repartee,  but  after  I  came  to  the  bar  he  never  attended 
the  courts  at  Litchfield,  neither  did  Mitchell,  but  tried  ca^es  before 
justices  and  arbitrators.  One  day  he  was  called  in  over  in  Canaan 
as  an  adviser  to  the  justice  in  the  trial  of  a  man  by  the  name  of 


JOHN    H.    HUBBARD 


WARXER  S  RKMIXISCEXCES  IO7 

Rockwell  who  was  prosecuted  for  murdering  his  brother.  Lemaii 
Church  was  the  defendant's  counsel  and  the  Hon.  John  H.  Hubbard 
was  another,  and  the  prosecuting  attorney  I  think  was  Elmore,  and 
it  was  a  protracted  case,  and  one  forenoon  the  lawyers  had  a  set-to 
as  to  the  admissibility  of  evidence  or  some  question  that  arose  before 
them,  and  there  was  a  great  deal  of  controversy  between  the  lawyers, 
and  after  very  much  had  been  said  they  adjourned  and  went  to  din- 
ner. The  lawyers  sat  around  the  table  and  Wheeler  came  in  and  sat 
down.  The  landlord  came  and  asked  him  what  he  would  have,  he 
wanted  to  know  if  he  would  take  some  of  the  goose.  "No"  he 
said  "Lhave  had  that  all  the  morning  and  I  don't  want  any." 

There  was  an  old  lady  who  possessed  some  property  in  Salis- 
bury, whom  they  called  Aunt  Polly.  She  was  litigious  in  her 
character  and  she  applied  to  every  lawyer  to  sue  somebody  and  when 
one-  would  refuse  she  would  go  to  another  and  finally  she  got  a 
writ  out  for  one  of  her  neighbors  and  brought  it  before  the  Court. 
Wheeler  defended  the  person  that  she  had  brought  the  suit  against 
and  he  would  stir  up  Aunt  Polly  until  she  become  violent  and  quick- 
tempered. She  had  her  money  in  specie  tied  up  in  one  corner  of 
her  handkerchief,  and  he  became  so  intolerable,  as  she  thought, 
towards  her  that  she  jumped  up  and  she  just  flung  this  specie  at 
his  head  and  it  hit  him,  but  didn't  hurt  him  very  much.  He  picked 
it  up  and  i)ut  it  in  his  pocket.  No  sooner  had  he  done  that, 
than  Aunt  Polly  went  for  him  and  downed  him  over  his  chair  and 
the  lawyer  on  the  other  side  said  "stick  to  h.im,  aunt  Polly."  That 
was  a  scene  in  court  in  the  early  da}s. 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  a  man  to  whom  I  feel  greatly  indebted, 
and  I  wish  I  could  pay  a  better  tribute  to  his  character  than  I  am 
able  to,  and  that  is  the  Hon.  John  H.  Hubbard.  He  was  a  native 
of  Salisbury  and  in  his  early  struggles  he  had  formidable  opposition 
to  contend  with.  In  early  life  he  was  feeble  and  unable  to  work 
and  finally  he  chose  this  profession,  and  by  dint  of  educating  him- 
self by  hard  study  and  teaching  school  winters  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  the  year  1826.  He  had  a  great  opposition  politically,  it 
was  the  day  of  anti-masonry  when  the  feelings  of  people  were  very 
much  excited  upon  that  question  arising  out  of  the  alleged  death 
of  one  Morgan  in  the  State  of  New  York.  He  adopted  the  views 
of  the  anti-masonic  party  and  was  opposed  by  strong  men  and  he 
had  a  terrible  struggle,  but  he  held  his  own.  He  had  that  per- 
sistent indomitable  never-die  principle  in  him  that  carried  him 
along  and  he  became  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  the  bar  of  Litch- 
field County.  He  is  a  living  example  to  young  men,  no  matter  what 
the  circumstances  may  be,  if  he  is  persistent,  if  he  is  studious,  if 
he  bends  his  efforts  in  that  direction  with  an  inflexibility  that  is  not 
to  be  beaten,  he  will  in  the  end  conquer.  I  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude 
to  that  man  for  he  drilled  me  in  the  principles  of  the  law  to  such  an 
extent  that  he  said  when  T  went  to  the  office  of  Judge  Seymour  so 


I08  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

as  to  be  present  when  the  courts  were  in  session  and  learn  some 
thing  of  its  practice,  that  I  was  able  to  be  admitted  as  soon  as  my 
time  of  study  should  expire.  He  became  a  member  of  Congress 
and  represented  the  4th  district.  He  was  states  attorney  for  the 
county  for  how  many  years  I  don't  now  remember. 

I  will  now  speak  of  another  gentleman,  a  lawyer  in  Salisbury, 
Roger  Averill.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Union  College,  tall,  erect 
and  well  proportioned,  dignified  in  manners  and  a  lawyer  of  fair 
ability.  He  practiced  in  Salisbury  for  some  years,  but  the  field 
was  not  sufficiently  wide  and  he  moved  to  Danbury  and  practiced 
there,  until  he  was  made  Lieut.-Governor  during  a  portion  of  the 
time  of  the  distinguished  war  governor.  Gov.  Buckingham.  He 
was  my  opponent  in  many  cases  that  we  tried  and  he  early  taught 
me  an  important  lesson  in  table  pounding.  In  a  case  we  were  try- 
ing before  a  justice  I  became  quite  vehement  and  brought  my  fist 
down  on  the  table  so  strong  and  so  often  that  he  commiserated  me 
and  felt  sorry  for  me.  and  he  kindly  placed  a  law  book  upon  the 
table  on  the  spot  where  I  had  been  hammering  and  said  "Brother 
Warner,  I  am  afraid  you  will  injure  your  hand,  the  book  is  softer." 
That  took  all  the  starch  out  of  me. 

Another  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Norton  J.  Buel  was  a  native 
of  Salisbury.  He  studied  a  portion  of  his  time  under  the  venerable 
Charles  F.  Sedwick,  and  the  latter  portion  of  it  under  Judge  Church 
when  he  was  practicing  in  Salisbury.  He  moved  to  Naugatuck 
in  the  first  place  and  afterwards  to  Waterbury,  but  he  frequently 
tried  cases  in  this  county  and  at  this  bar.  He  was  a  successful 
lawyer  and  a  gentleman,  and  one  who  acquitted  himself  with  great 
ability  as  a  lawyer. 

Moving  along  East,  we  come  to  North  Canaan  and  we  find  John 
Elmore,  he  was  a  native  of  the  town  and  I  understood  he  was  a 
very  popular  young  man  when  he  started  in  business,  he  was  sur- 
rounded by  many  friends,  he  was  very  genial  and  a  hale  fellow 
well-met,  everybody  liked  Jack  Elmore,  and  he  was  on  the  high- 
tide  to  become  a  successful  lawyer,  but  his  convivial  habits  dragged 
him  down. 

Leman  Church,  who  was  a  half  brother  of  Samuel  Church,  was 
a  native  of  Salisbury,  and  he  attended  the  law  school  of  Judge 
Gould  at  Litchfield.  He  located  at  North  Canaan  about  the  same 
time  that  Elniore  did.  Instead  of  having  many  friends  to  aid  him 
he  had  to  encounter  the  opposition  of  the  prominent  men  of  the 
place.  I  asked  years  ago  an  old  gentleman  who  was  familiar  with 
North  Canaan  why  it  was  that  they  all  stood  by  Jack  Elmore  and 
not  bv  Church.  Well,  he  said,  Elmore  was  a  congenial  man,  he 
was  a  pleasant  man,  he  had  all  the  social  elements  in  him  that  were 
attractive.  While  they  never  saw  Church,  he  never  met  us  any- 
where and  if  he  did,  why  there  was  no  congeniality  between  us,  they 
were  all  opposed  to  him  in  the  town,  I  mean  the  prominent  men ; 


WARNER  S  REMINISCENCES  lOQ 

but  he  studied  his  books  and  thought  deeply.  He  would  occasion- 
ally have  a  case,  and  bye  and  bye  his  star  began  to  rise,  and  though 
he  could  not  and  did  not  command  the  love,  yet  he  commanded  the 
respect  of  the  people  by  dint  of  his  great  talents  and  power.  I  con- 
sidered Leman  Church  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  and  the  best 
equipped  on  all  occasions  that  I  ever  met.  He  had  a  keen,  quick 
perception,  he  had  that  continuousity  of  purpose ;  he  did  not  pander 
to  please  the  multitude  nor  to  the  applause  of  the  individual.  He 
ploughed  a  straight  furrow  along  his  own  course,  and  he  attained 
the  highest  position  at  the  bar  at  an  early  age.  He  had  the  keenest 
blade  of  satire,  wit  and  humor,  it  abounded  with  him  ;  at  repartee 
he  was  never  at  a  loss,  nor  upon  any  question  that  the  judge  might 
propound  to  him  whether  he  ever  had  the  case  under  consideration 
or  not ;  and  always  acquitted  himself  with  the  highest  ability.  I 
speak  thus  of  him  because  I  was  so  situated  when  I  first  came  to 
the  bar,  the  other  lawyers  being  older,  I  was  forced  to  call  upon 
Leman  Church,  and  he  aided  me  and  always  assisted  me  in  any 
case  for  which  I  might  call  upon  him.  Physically  he  was  tall,  frail 
in  appearance,  he  had  a  hunch  with  his  head  slightly  deformed,  a 
shrivelled  face,  lean  and  gaunt,  and  his  apparel  was  always  neat 
but  of  the  coarsest  character.  His  feet  were  clad  in  heavy  brogan 
shoes,  but  the  redeeming  feature  of  his  countenance  was  his  eye, 
and  such  an  eye  would  convince  you  gentlemen  when  cast  upon 
you  as  being  that  of  a  man  of  powerful  intellect.  Now  to  speak 
of  his  ability  as  a  lawyer.  Porter  Rurrall,  the  son  of  William  Bur- 
rail,  a  Canaan  man.  a  highly  educated  man  was  president  of  the 
Housatonic  Railroad.  Some  of  its  directors  lived  in  the  city  of 
New  York  and  some  question  arose  in  relation  to  the  management 
of  the  road  and  there  were  lawyers  in  New  York  who  had  the 
question  under  advisement  and  they  had  expressed  opinions  in  re- 
lation to  it.  There  was  a  final  meeting  appointed  for  the  further 
discussion  and  the  determination  of  the  question  involved.  Bur- 
rall  called  upon  Church  and  told  him  he  wanted  to  have  him  to  go 
down  to  New  York  City  and  attend  that  Director's  meeting.  Church 
said  in  his  peculiar  voice  "I  am  not  going  down  among  those  dandy 
lawyers  they  think  they  know  everything,  and  I  am  not  going." 
However,  Burrall  had  great  faith  in  him  and  insisted  upon  his  go- 
ing, and  he  finally  went  down,  clad  like  a  clod-hopper  and  he  sat 
down  in  that  convention.  The  opinions  of  these  distinguished  New 
York  Lawyers  were  called  for  and  finally  Mr.  Burrall  said,  "Mr. 
Chairman,  I  wish  my  friend  Mr.  Church  of  Canaan  might  be  per- 
mitted to  speak."  Well  Church  got  up,  a  most  inferior  looking 
man,  you  can't  find  one  to  compare  with  him  in  that  respect,  but 
he  went  at  the  question  under  discussion  and  laid  them  out  so  broad 
and  clear  and  so  perfectly  lucid  that  he  established  them,  and  his 
views  were  finallv  adopted.  He  could  not  bear  a  fop.  he  could  not 
bear  what  he  called  a  Miss.  Nancy,  or  vaporism  of  any  kind,  he 


no  UTCHFlKLD   COLNTV    BENCH   AND   BAR 

went  too  far  perhaps  in  that  respect,  1)ut  he  had  a  happy  gift  of 
puncturing  bubbles  and  I  will  give  you  one  or  two  instances  of  it. 
Now  you  know  that  when  young  men  come  to  the  bar  and  make 
their  first  appearance  before  a  Jurw  they  wish  to  make  an  impres- 
sion and  sometimes  be  classical  and  ornate.  There  was  brother 
Hitchcock  who  lived  in  Winsted.  a  man  for  whom  I  held  the  high- 
est respect,  and  whose  memory  I  revere.  He  and  Judge  CTranger 
and  myself  were  great  friends.  Hitchcock  was  a  i^artner  of  Hol- 
abird.  They  had  a  very  important  case  to  be  tried  at  Litchfield. 
Hitchcock  had  made  great  preparations  in  the  case,  and  it  was 
among  his  first  efiforts  at  the  bar  in  the  way  of  argument  and  trial, 
and  he  familiarized  Granger  and  myself  with  the  case  and  we  felt 
a  very  deep  interest  in  his  behalf.  Hitchcock  in  the  course  of  his 
argument  animadverted  upon  one  principal  witness  in  the  case 
against  him,  he  was  a  very  important  witness  for  the  other  side, 
and  it  was  very  important  for  Hitchcock's  client  that  the  Jury 
should  not  take  his  word  or  the  testimony  he  gave  before  the  Court. 
In  the  course  of  his  argument  Hitchcock  said,  alluding  to  that  wit- 
ness, "why,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  he  is  the  very  "folliculus,'  in 
this  case."  A  little  further  along  he  said  ''He  is  a  Jupiter  Tonans, 
gentlemen  of  the  Jury.""  When  Leman  Cliurch  came  to  answer 
that  he  said  "Now,  gentlemen  of  the  Jury  my  young  friend  here, 
brother  Hitchcock  has  attempted  to  mislead  you  ;  why  he  has  talked 
about  one  Miss  Polly  New  Rose  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  have  you 
seen  any  such  witness  on  this  stand?"  "Not  satisfied  with  that, 
he  has  imposed  upon  you  again,  he  has  talked  about  a  witness  here 
by  the  name  of  Jew  Peter  Toe  Nails."  As  soon  as  we  could, 
Granger  and  T  took  our  hats  and  went  out.  Another  case  we  had 
in  the  Superior  Court  in  which  Leman  Church  was  interested,  we 
had  medical  experts  in,  and  a  learned  Doctor  by  the  name  of  Fuller 
from  New  Haven  was  there  as  a  witness  against  the  interests  of 
Church's  client.  He  went  along  very  learnedly,  as  such  physicians 
do,  and  when  Church  came  to  cross-examine  this  witness  he  com- 
menced by  saying  "well,  now,  Dr.  Fooler"  and  he  took  the  wind  out 
of  him  pretty  effectually. 

Another  illustration  of  his  mode  of  examining  a  witness.  There 
was  a  great  controversy  in  \ears  gone  by  between  Jedediah  Graves 
and  Sylvanus  Merwin,  father-in-law  and  son-in-law,  about  a  man 
who  went  and  took  up  the  tombstones  of  his  children  and  offered 
them  for  sale  on  an  execution  for  a  judgment. 

Graves  was  a  pompous  sort  of  fellow,  he  was  a  trial  justice  in 
the  town  of  New  Milford  and  he  was  called  upon  to  testify  to  what 
was  said  before  him  on  a  trial.  He  went  along  well  and  easily 
and  was  turned  over  to  Church  for  cross-examination,  and  Church 
in  his  questions  began  to  imply  that  he  was  going  outside  of  the 
truth.  After  a  while  the  witness  stopped  and  says  "Squire  Church, 
I  have  a  realizing  sense  of  the  obligations  of  my  oath.  T  have  ad- 


WARXKK  S  RKMIXISCENCES  III 

ministered  them  and  I  protest  against  your  insinuations."  Church 
said  "Squire  Elliott,  if  you  have  got  through  with  your  peroration, 
please  answer  my  question." 

Now  I  come  to  speak  of  that  distinguished  man  in  Xorth  Canaan, 
Miles  Toby  Granger.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Wesleyan  University 
at  Middletown  in  this  state.  He  was  a  school  teacher  on  a  plan- 
tation down  in  Mississippi,  teaching  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
surrounding  plantations,  and  during  that  time  he  studied  law  in 
Mississippi  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  that  state.  He  came 
back  to  Connecticut  and  went  into  the  office  of  Leman  Church  and 
studied  law  with  him  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  knowledge  of 
Connecticut  laws  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  after  1843.  He  was 
the  greatest  wit,  humorist  and  wag  of  the  bar,  he  was  the  very 
Mark  Twain  of  the  bar.  His  sayings,  his  wit  and  his  humor  might 
be  read  as  Innocents  at  Home  instead  of  Innocents  Abroad.  He 
was  skilled  in  doggerel  poetry  as  he  called  it.  He  would  see  the 
ludicrous  and  ridiculous  in  persons  and  things  that  no  one  but  he 
thought  of,  and  he  would  bring  it  out  to  the  great  amusement  of 
his  hearers.  His  very  first  argument  in  the  Superior  Court  was 
in  poetry.  It  was  the  case  of  Dunham  vs.  Dunham.  Dunham 
brought  a  petition  for  a  divorce  against  his  wife,  he  was  a  widower 
when  he  married,  and  she  was  a  widow.  They  were  both  very  old 
and  infirm,  their  spouses  were  dead  and  they  desired  companionship, 
and  so  they  inter-married.  Jack  Elmore  brought  the  i)etition  and 
in  that  petition  he  set  up  as  a  ground,  a  fradulent  contract.  Judge 
Ellsworth,  a  very  grave  man  and  a  deacon  of  the  church  in  Hart- 
ford was  holding  Court.  Granger  led  ofif  in  the  argument  for  the 
defense  and  Church  was  to  close  the  debate.  His  whole  argument 
was  in  poetry,  but  I  remember  nothing  but  the  last  verse,  which 
was  this : 

"Now  all  his  hopes  in  ruins  lie. 

Crushed  by  this  prolapsus  uteri." 
He  was  a  great  fellow  for  giving  names  to  persons.  He  dubbed 
me  by  the  name  of  Elder,  and  it  has  been  carried  on  to  this  day,  and 
I  believe  I  had  been  so  addressed  since  I  have  been  here.  Why  he 
did  it  I  don't  know,  whether  an  elder  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  or  some  other  persuasion  I  havn't  any  idea,  he  never  ex- 
plainded  it  to  me.  He  was  full  of  his  jokes  and  quirks,  it  made  no 
difference  whether  it  was  foe  or  friend,  but  it  was  all  in  good  na- 
ture. Well,  you  all  know  his  history  in  later  life  when  he  was 
highly  honored,  represented  his  town  in  the  Legislature,  in  the  Sen- 
ate and  represented  the  4th  district  in  Congress  after  his  retirement 
as  a  Judge. 

Col.  Jacob  B.  Hardenberg,  he  was  a  native  of  Kingston,  X.  Y. 
He  was  a  good  lawyer,  a  soldier  and  a  warrior  at  Gettysburg  under 
Col  Pratt.  I  misrht  well  sav  of  him  "he  was  the  bravest  of  the 
brave." 


112  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH   AND   BAR 

Now  I  come  to  one  of  my  first  students,  George  Washington 
Peet.  He  was  a  native  of  Salisbury  and  read  law  in  my  office  and 
completed  his  studies  in  the  law  in  the  Harvard  Law  School.  Soon 
after  his  admission  he  located  in  South  Canaan  in  the  office  of 
Judge  Burrall  and  commenced  practice  there,  and  afterwards  at 
Falls  \  illage.  From  his  maternal  ancestry  he  inherited  the  power 
of  acquisitiveness  which  was  but  little  diluted  by  what  he  inherited 
from  the  paternal  side.  And  only  semi-occasionally  did  he  commit 
waste  by  profuse  expenditure.  He  was  a  unique  character.  Peet 
was  a  nervous,  excitable,  confident,  energetic,  bold  man.  He  went 
in  pursuit  of  money  and  he  got  it.  He  was  not  devoid  of  wit  and  by 
it  occasionally  entertained  us.  We  boys  were  playing  tricks  upon 
each  other,  as  I  presume  they  are  now,  the  younger  members. 
Hitchcock  had  a  good  deal  of  that  in  his  makeup,  and  one  day  at 
the  Court  in  Litchfield  in  warm  weather  Peet  was  down  there  with 
his  linen  coat  on,  and  in  those  days  the  clerk  had  on  his  desk  a 
wafer  box  with  little  red  wafers,  we  didn't  have  mucilage  then, 
but  we  used  red  wafers  to  stick  things  on,  and  Hitchcock  got  out 
a  lot  of  these  every  little  while,  then  would  wet  one  of  them  and 
go  around  and  slap  Peet  on  the  back  and  stick  on  a  wafer,  and  soon 
got  him  prettv  well  pasted.  Peet  was  marching  around  in  dififerent 
places  making  an  exhibition  of  his  back,  and  finally  he  found  peo- 
ple were  laughing  at  him.  Peet  would  ask,  "well,  what  are  you 
laughing  at"  and  then  they  would  laugh  the  more.  Finally  some- 
one asked  "What  the  devil  have  you  got  on  your  back.  Peet?" 
Peet  was  very  indignant  and  accused  Hitchcock  of  trying  to  make 
him  the  butt  of  this  bar. 

As  I  said,  Granger  gave  names  to  everybody.  There  is  a  place 
in  South  Canaan  called  Dogtown,  and  years  ago  there  was  a  tavern 
there  and  the  place  of  trial  of  many  cases.  That  was  Peet's  stamp- 
ing ground,  and  Granger  and  others  met  him  there,  and  so  Granger 
gave  him  the  name,  not  of  the  constellation  exactly,  but  he  called 
him  Attorney  Serious,  the  dog-star,  the  brighest  star  in  dog-town. 

I  pass  along  to  Norfolk.  There  was  Michael  Mills.  He  was 
a  tall,  lean  lank,  bony  man.  high  cheek  bones  and  rather  tawny 
face.     Granger  called  him  the  Sachem  of  Norfolk. 

Then  comes  William  K.  Peck.  Jr.,  he  was  a  native  of  Harwin- 
ton ;  his  parents  moved  with  him  to  Salisbury  when  he  was  a  young 
boy.  He  studied  law  in  my  office  and  commenced  practice  in  Nor- 
folk. He  was  very  fond  of  making  public  speeches  when  ever  an 
opportunity  presented.  Abolitionism  and  temperance  were  his 
favorite  topics  and  he  availed  himself  of  every  opportunity  to  make 
speeches,  and  in  that  respect,  so  far  as  capability  of  addressing  pop- 
ular sentiment  at  his  age  of  life,  he  had  decided  talent.  Granger 
called  him  Duke  of  Norfolk.  When  he  contemplated  settling  in 
Norfolk,  one  of  the  good  deacons  of  Norfolk  came  over  to  see  me 
to  inquire  about  him  and  informed  me  that  Mr.  Peck  had  referred 


^I^Ww  ,^9*^ 


GIDEOX    HALL 


Warner's  remixiscexces  113 

him  to  me  and  wanted  to  know  what  sort  of  a  man  he  was.  I  told 
liim  he  was  exactly  adapted  to  Norfolk.  He  said  "what  do  you 
mean?"  I  replied  "in  the  first  place  he  is  a  very  moralman,  a  man 
of  excellent  moral  character  ;  in  the  second  place  he  will  be  an  ad- 
mirable successor  of  Michael  Mills  in  his  physical  make-up,  he  ha^ 
a  peculiar  tawny  brown  hair,  high  cheek  bones,  and  in  another  re- 
spect he  is  a  black  republican"  as  they  called  them  then.  The  old 
deacon  laughed  and  said  he  guessed  he  was  the  man.  So  he  settled 
there  and  I  believe  acquitted  himself  with  ability.  After  he  had 
been  there  a  while  he  removed  to  ^lichigan  where  I  have  heard  he 
became  a  successful  lawyer.  I  felt  proud  of  him  as  a  student  in  luy 
office.  .,  ,  jit 

Xow  I  come  to  Winsted.  ^\'illiam  S.  Holabird  was  a  native  of 
vSouth  Canaan.  He  was  physically  a  large,  tall,  splendidly  made-u[) 
man,  imposing  in  appearance  and  ]:)resence.  and  he  was  the  great 
democratic  leader  of  the  bar.  He  was  a  politician  and  he  was  a  man 
around  whom  the  yoimg  democratic  lawyers  liked  to  gather.  He 
had  excellent  conversational  powers  and  they  were  always  interested 
in  his  conversation.  He  was  really  one  of  the  instructors  in  ])oliti- 
cal  matters  among  the  clemocratic  lawyers,  and  he  was  then  in  ac- 
tive practice.  He  had  some  bitterness  in  his  make-u]),  but  his 
friendship  was  as  strong  as  his  hatred  was  deep  and  unforgiving. 

Gideon  Hall  was  an  opponent,  and  as  a  lawyer  and  in  |)olitics 
they  were  diametricallx'  tjpposed.  Holabird  was  vindictive  some- 
times, and  his  hatred  extended  down  too  far. 

Now  1  come  to  another  unique  character,  and  that  was  Gideon 
Hall.  He  was  a  lean,  tall,  gaunt  man,  he  was  in  full  practice,  and 
continued  in  practice  until  he  was  appointed  Judge  of  the  Superior 
Court.  He  was  a  hard  worker,  diligent;  his  contests  were  elabor- 
ate, manv  and  severe.  Hall  and  Holabird  were  opponents  always 
in  politics  and  lawsuits,  never  associated.  Hall  was  very  prolix  in 
the  conduct  of  trials,  and  rcmarkal)ly  so  in  his  arguments  before 
the  court  and  iur\-.  The  one  hour  rule  had  not  been  ])assed  when 
he  ])racticed.  Hall  would  occasionally  make  attem})ts  at  oratory 
in  his  trials,  and  here  is  an  illustration  of  it.  He  had  a  suit  in 
court  for  his  client,  the  plaintiii  in  the  case.  It  was  a  contest  over 
a  piece  of  rocky  land  of  no  value  comparatively  speaking.  During 
the  trial  he  was  often  talking  about  the  littleness  and  smallness  of 
the  case,  and  it  was  so  alluded  to  in  the  argument  by  the  counsel 
for  the  defense.  This  was  a  sort  of  an  exordium  or  peroration  in 
which  he  said  it  was  not  available  on  account  of  the  super-abundant 
fecundity  of  its  soil,  but  because  it  was  ancestral  estate  and  had 
come  down  from  a  long  line  of  colonial  ancestors. 

In  relation  to  Hall,  there  is  one  thing  which  shows  the  estima- 
tion of  the  bar.  This  story  was  told  to  me  by  the  late  George  C. 
Woodrufif  of  Litchfield.  A  lawyer  of  this  county  had  a  suit  in 
court,  a  young  lawyer  and  he  had  associated  with  him  George  C. 


^14  I.ITClIFllvLD  COUN'TV  BEXCII   AXD   P.AR 

WoodruH'.  It  was  a  case  asking-  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
in  chancer}-  which  was  to  be  tried  out  of  term-time,  and  the  question 
arose  who  should  be  that  committee.  Of  course,  if  the  parties  agreed 
on  the  comniittee,  the  court  would  sanction  it,  otherwise  the  court 
would  have  to  decide  and  appoint  whom  it  thought  best.  Negoti- 
ations were  made  between  the  opposite  counsel,  WoodrulT  on  one 
side  and  Hubbard  and  Granger  on  the  other  side,  and  Hubbard  and 
Granger  suggested  Hall  as  a  good  one  for  the  committee-man.  The 
young  man  went  to  see  Mr.  Woodruff  and  told  him  that  they  pro- 
posed to  have  Hall  appointed  committee,  and  ^^'oodruff  said  to  him 
"don't  you  have  him.  why  he  will  get  things  all  mixed  up  in  his 
re])ort  so  that  we  shall  not  get  head  or  tail  to  it."  The  young  man 
reflected  and  said  "Mr.  W^iodrufl^,  that  may  be  just  what  we  want." 
Well,  it  turned  out  so,  it  was  mixed  and  \\'oodrult  won  his  case. 

1  come  now  to  the  friend  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  Roland  Hitch- 
cock. He  was  a  native  of  lUu-lington.  He  read  law  in  Holabird's 
office  and  he  was  admitted  to  the  liar  in  about  1844,  and  became 
a  ])artner  of  Holabird  and  practiced  law  in  Winchester  until  ap- 
pointed as  Juflge  of  the  Superior  Court.  1  always  liked  the  man, 
and  so  well  did  I  know  him  that  his  peculiarities  never  interfered 
witli  our  friendshi]).  He  at  times  exhibited  nuicli  wit  and  humor 
and  enjoved  the  funnv  side  of  things  and  contributed  his  share  to 
the  merriment  of  the  bar.  There  was  a  streak  of  melancholia  in  his 
nature  which  alwavs  made  him  sorrowful.  It  lasted  him  through 
life,  and  in  the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  had  a  woeful  effect  upon 
him.  He  was  testy  and  often  irritable  in  trials.  As  an  illustration 
of  that  I  remen-iber  a  case  in  wdiich  Granger  and  myself  were  on 
one  side  and  Hitchcock  on  the  other  before  a  committee  at  Canaan. 
Hitchcock's  client  was  one  Hart,  a  notable  character  and  who  was 
easily  stirred  up.  In  the  course  of  the  trial  Granger,  knowing 
Hart's  ])eculiarities  would  stir  him  u]:)  and  he  would  rattle  along 
and  interru])t  the  trial  so  that  Hitchcock  wtnild  sometimes  get  mad 
at  his  client  and  he  would  once  in  a  while  issue  an  ex])letive  on  the 
snl)iect.  He  was  very  fixed  in  his  opinions  of  the  law  and  un- 
changeably so  at  times.  He  was  through  and  through  an  honest 
man  and  administered  justice  im])artially  in  the  courts  where  he  was 
judge. 

I  go  now  to  Barkhamstead  and  speak  of  the  late  Hiram  Good- 
win. He  was  in  full  practice,  his  clientage  was  not  only  in  his  town, 
but  extended  to  the  adjoining  towns  in  tliis  and  Hartford  Count}-. 
T  considered  him  an  able  lawyer.  He  conducted  his  trials  with 
skill  and  his  arguments  were  clear  and  logical.  As  a  judge  of  the 
Coiint\-  Court  he  gave  satisfaction. 

1  come  now  to  New  Hartford.  Roger  H.  ?\[ills  was  in  prac- 
tice there  many  years  before  I  came  to  the  bar.  He  was  of  fine  ap- 
pearance and  high  standing  at  the  bar.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Senate  in  tlie  Legislative  session  of  1848  at  the  time  these  radical 


HOX.   ROLAND  HITCHCOCK 


GEO.    WIIIvA'l'ON 


BIRDSYIi    BALDWIN" 


WARXKK  S   KKMIXISCEXCES  II5 

laws  were  made  and  I  think  lie  opposed  both  of  those  enactments. 
He  was  a  very  accomplishcfl  man,  ]:)leasant,  scholarly,  but  the  field 
was  not  wide  enough  for  him  and  so  he  moved  to  Wisconsin,  and 
after  a  while  died  there. 

Jared  B.  Foster  was  his  successor  there.  He  came  to  the  bar 
after  1843,  ^"^  ^^^  is  entitled  to  great  credit,  for  he  read  law  while 
making  and  mending  boots  and  shoes  in  Colebrook.  He  was  a 
merry,  good  fellow,  he  became  well  equipped  in  the  principles  of  the 
law  and  quickly  acquired  its  ])ractical  parts.  He  represented  the 
town  in  the  Legislature  with  ability  and  he  succeeded  Hitchcock 
as  judge  of  the  Litchfield  County  Court  and  discharged  his  duties 
with  ability.  He  was  emincntl\'  social  and  a  hale  fellow  well-met. 
We  used  to  address  him  as  Jerry.  Granger  dubbed  him  Terry  Red. 
For  many  years  he  was  a  sufferer  from  rheumatism  and  it  finally 
brought  him  to  his  grave. 

Goshen.  Nelson  Ilrewster.  His  law  business  was  local.  He 
lived  two  years  in  Litchfield  and  he  tried  a  few  cases  and  he  was  a 
bank  commissioner  several  times.  I'.irdseye  Baldwin,  a  unique  char- 
acter was  his  contemporary  in  Goshen,  a  kindhearted  man  of  limit- 
ed practice  and  of  great  simplicity  of  character.  He  was  very  fond 
of  whist.  Granger  and  Hitchcock  at  court  whenever  they  were  in 
session  entertained  him  very  often  vcr\-  royally,  in  the  amusement 
of  which  I  was  a  witness.  (  )ftcntimcs  1  was  a  ])artner  of  Granger, 
and  IJaldwin  and  Hitchcock  were  ])artners.  Tf  Hitchcock  and 
Granger  turned  u])  a  truni])  tlie\  would  ])ass  their  trumps  one  to  the 
other  under  the  table  and  i)ick  out  all  the  best  cards  and  hand 
back  the  poor  ones.  Finalh'  I'-aldwin  would  get  ui)  and  exclaim, 
after  losing  all  the  games,  "well,  ii  does  beat  the  devil." 

T  now  come  to  Cornwall,  to  George  W'heaton.  He  was  of 
humble  origin,  born  in  East  Haven,  ^\'hen  I  was  a  boy,  I  learned 
that  he  was  of  most  extraordinarx  abilitx  ,  illiterate,  he  nnu-(lered 
the  Queen's  English,  but  one  of  the  most  skilful  and  adroit  lawyers 
at  the  bar  in  his  day  and  time.  Wheaton  was  a  great  lawyer  in 
m}-  judgment.  He  had  one  peculiar  gesture  and  that  was  this,  he 
never  laughed  and  liardl\"  ever  smiled.  As  an  illustration  of  his 
cunning  and  shrewdness  and  his  ajitilude  for  hitting  the  party 
against  him  I  will  mention  an  instance.  There  was  a  suit  brought 
against  the   Housatonic   Railroad    for   damage   to   property   injure 


by  the  cars.  Peet  and  myself  were  defending  the  Railroad  Com- 
pany and  Granger  and  W'heaton  were  counsel  for  the  plaintiff'. 
One  of  the  witnesses,  Charles  Emmons,  an  employee  of  the  railroad, 
was  a  very  important  witness  and  his  testimony  was  crucial  in  be- 
half of  the  defendant.  Of  course  the  case  being  against  a  railroad 
corporation  it  had  to  be  put  to  a  jury.  This  witness.  Emmons  was 
a  very  honest  man  and  a  christian  gentleman,  and  lif  he  could  make 
the  jury  believe  as  they  ought  to  believe,  that  his  testimony  was 
truthful,  then  the  case  should  be  decided  for  the  defendant.     In  the 


Ii6  I.ITCHFIKLD   C0<_  NTY    llENCH   AND   BAR 

course  of  the  argument,  in  commenting"  on  the  testimony  of  the 
witness  Emmons,  I  dweU  upon  the  purity  of  his  hfe  and  character, 
his  christian  character.  When  \\'heaton  came  to  wind  up  the  case 
he  said  "r)r(jther  Warner  says  this  Emmons  is  a  Christian.  Well, 
I  aint  .going  to  dispute  that,  but  if  the  company  finds  out  that 
that  is  his  character,  they  will  discharge  him  very  quick." 

Another  instance  comes  down  by  tradition.  Church  frequently 
came  in  contact  with  Wheaton.  He  was  called  down  there  to  de- 
fend a  man  in  some  case  before  a  justice,  and  Wheaton  commenced 
the  argument  of  his  case.  He  had  his  book  of  Connecticut  reports 
and  he  stated  to  the  Court  what  the  law  was  and  he  would  read 
from  this  book  and  so  he  read  from  the  brief  of  one  of  the  lawyers. 
Church  said,  "Wheaton,  let  me  take  that  book."  Wheaton  said, 
"go  get  your  own  law,  brother  Church." 

Church  of  course  told  the  judge  he  was  reading  from  the  brief 
of  the  attorney,  not  from  the  opinion  of  the  court  or  the  judge 
who  decided  the  case.  Wheaton  replied  "I  didn't  say  I  did,  1  said  I 
read  what  is  the  law  there,  and  I  believe  it  to  be  good  law,  and  if 
the  Supreme  Court  has  said  otherwise,  they  will  over-rule  that 
decision."  He  was  a  communicant  of  the  Congregational  Church 
in  Cornwall.  Now  there  was  a  religious  revival  in  that  town  long- 
years  ago  and  there  was  a  man  there  by  the  name  of  Daniel  Scoville. 
During  that  revival  he  attended  these  meetings  very  faithfully  and 
appeared  very  much  interested  in  them.  There  was  a  bitter  hatred 
between  this  man  and  \Mieaton.  Wheaton  had  law  suits  against 
him  fre(]uently  and  they  were  conducted  sharply  by  Wheaton  as 
against  him.  Some  of  Wheaton's  fellow  members  went  to  him  and 
said,  "Why  tins  man  is  so  much  interested  in  the  supject  of  re- 
ligion I  think  that  you  ought,  as  a  member  of  the  church,  to  go  to 
him  and  encourage  him  in  some  form  and  show  forgiveness  on 
\our  part."  So  one  evening  Wheaton  went  up  there  and  while 
Scoville  was  in  the  attitude  of  praying  and  said  "If  there  is  any 
mourner  here  who  has  any  feeling  a.gainst  me  or  I  have  any  a.gainst 
him,  God  forbid  that  T  should  in  an\-  way  bar  his  coming  to  God." 
Well,  he  had  a  client  there  who  waited  until  Wheaton  came  out 
and  then  he  said  "Wheaton,  you  know  that  law  suit  we  have  got 
there  against  him,  now  I  want  that  fought  right  up."  Wheaton 
replied  "Oh !  he'll  fight  all  ri,ght." 

Then  there  was  Julius  B.  Harrison.  He  was  a  native  of  Corn- 
wall, he  read  law  with  Wheaton  and  came  to  the  bar  after  1843 
and  practiced  a  while  in  Cornwall  and  moved  to  New  Milford  where 
he  .died.  He  was  states  attorney  for  the  county,  he  was  a  very 
diligent  man,  very  ambitious  and  he  rapidly  rose  in  his  profession. 
Hevvas  repetitious  in  his  arguments,  and  that  was  the  only  criticism 
I  ever  heard  made,  for  he  was  certainly  logical,  and  had  he  lived 
to  the  ordinary  age,  I  have  no  doubt  he  would  have  been  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  bar. 


JARED    B.    ]?OSTER 


WARNERS  RE-MIXTSCENCES  11/ 

Another  man  from  Cornwall  was  Solon  B.  Johnson,  and  many 
of  you  no  doubt  remember  him.  He  was  a  tall,  larc^e-framed  per- 
son. I  don't  know  what  year  he  came  to  the  bar,  and  he  was  editor 
of  the  Litchfield  Sentinel,  and  his  editorial  articles  were  read  with 
a  great  deal  of  interest :  there  was  a  great  deal  of  wit  and  humor 
and  sarcasm  contained  in  them.  He  died  early  in  life,  he  was  of 
a  peculiar  nature  and  character,  a  loveable  man  in  a  great  many 
respects.  He  had  a  peculiar  stolid  appearance  at  times,  whether 
put  on  or  natural.  I  don't  know.  If  unnatural  it  was  very  success- 
ful comsumation.  The  last  term  that  Judge  Minor  hekl  of  the 
Superior  Court  prior  to  his  resignation,  having  accepted  the  nomi- 
nation for  member  of  Congress  from  the  4th  district,  there  was  a 
gentleman  came  up  to  Litchfield,  an  entire  stranger.  He  was  in 
evervbodv's  office,  he  was  in  the  court  room.  He  was  a  queer 
sort  of  a  man,  talking  with  everybody  and  with  Judge  Elinor  and 
vou  couldn't  help  being  interested  to  know  who  he  was.  He  came 
across  Solon  Johnson  and  Johnson  tried  to  get  rid  of  him.  He 
was  all  the  while  teasing  Johnson  to  take  drinks  with  him,  and  ^^Ir. 
Johnson  declined  and  kept  declining.  Finally,  after  much  urging 
Johnson  savs  "mv  friend,  there  is  a  drug  store  down  here  and  we 
will  go  down  there  and  get  something  that  is  i)ure  and  good." 
Well,  liny  went  down  to  the  drug  store  and  a  ])int  bottle  was  brought 
out  with  the  very  i)urest  kind  of  whiskey  they  had  and  a  tumbler 
was  set  down,  and  this  stranger  told  Mr.  Johnson  to  take  a  drink. 
Johnson  took  up  the  bottle,  looked  at  the  cork,  smelled  of  it  and 
savs  "that's  all  right"  tiuMicd  it  up  and  drained  the  l)ottle.  The 
stranger  looked  at  him  aghast,  expecting  liim  to  fall  dead  every 
minute.  Johnson  looked  at  him,  smiled  and  said  "Well,  aint  }ou 
going  to  take  something?" 

Now  I  come  to  Frederick  Chittenden.  He  was  in  ])racticc  when 
I  came  to  the  bar,  a  high  temi)ered  man  of  great  knowledge.  He 
had  manv  conflicts  with  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  He 
was  of  an  irrascible  temper,  but  a  good-hearted,  generous  likely 
man.  very  well  read  in  tlie  law,  but  dei:)ended  a  great  deal  upon 
his  natural  abilities;  it  took  but  very  little  to  excite  him,  he  was 
verv  beligerent  in  the  trial.  There  was  a  lawyer  from  Kent,  Henry 
Fuller,  who  came  to  the  bar  after  myself.  They  had  a  contest  and 
Chittenden  was  so  excited  he  struck  him  on  the  head.  Well,  there 
was  an  interruption,  and  after  the  adjournment  Chittenden  came 
in  and  laid  his  cane  down  upon  the  table  and  he  said  he  would 
preserve  order  in  the  court  room. 

John  G.  Reed  was  a  native  of  Salisbury  and  read  law  with  me. 
His  father  and  mother  were  Scotch.  His  father,  the  late  Dr. 
Adam  Reed  was  a  celebrated  Divine.  He  was  educated  at  Williams 
College,  he  practiced  law  in  Kent  a  short  time,  moved  to  Ohio,  en- 
listed in  an  C^hio  regiment  in  the  civil  war,  and  when  he  returned 
from  that,  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  there  distinguished  himself 


Il8  UTCHFIELD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND   BAR 

as  a  lawyer  before  the  higher  courts  upon  mere  questions  of  law. 
He  was  not  what  you  call  a  jury  lawyer. 

Well,  brethren  and  gentlemen  of  the  bar :  The  bell  tolls  and 
my  hour  has  expired.  I  look  back  to  the  time  when  life  was  new 
and  bright  before  me  and  everything  seemed  fair  and  good  to  see. 
I  stand  here  now  and  remember  all  these  friends  of  so  long  ago 
As  I  stand  here  alone  of  all  those  I  knew  in  my  early  days, 
whom  I  have  seen  fall  around  me  like  leaves  in  the  wintry  weather. 

"I  feel  like  one  who  stands  alone, 
Tn  some  banquet  hall  deserted ; 
Whose  lights  are  dead, 
Whose  joys  are  fled. 
And  all  but  he  departed. 


^istnncal  Holes 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 


OF 


COURTS,  BAR  LIBRARY  AND 


PROMINENT  OFFICIALS 


Compiled  By 

DWIGHT  C.  KILBOURN 

CLERK 


■^S%  1^ 


DWIGHT    C.    KII.BOURN 


HISTORICAL  NOTES. 


Upon  the  establishment  of  Litchfield  County  in  1751,  the  General 
Assembly  was  pleased  to  order  two  terms  of  the  County  Court  to 
be  held  therein,  one  on  the  fourth  Tuesday  of  December,  and  the 
other  on  the  fourth  Tuesday  of  April  in  each  year,  and  also  one 
term  of  the  Superior  Court  to  be  held  on  the  last  Tuesday  save 
two,  in  August  of  each  year. 

In  this  Superior  Court  there  was  but  one  Clerk  for  the  whole 
Colony  who  went  with  the  Judges  from  place  to  place  as  the 
sessions  were  held,  and  kept  the  records  all  together  in  Hartford, 
where  those  prior  to  1798  can  now  l)e  found  in  the  Secretary  of 
State's  office. 

The  following  is  the  record  of  the  first  court  held  in  Litchfield 
County : 

"At  a  Count}-  Court  held  at  Litchfield  within  and  fur  the  County 
of  Litchfield  on  the  fourth  Tuesday  of  December  A.  D.,  1751. 

Present:  \\'jllia-\[  Prestok,  Chief  Judge. 

loji.v  Williams      )   ^  ,      • 

'  „  (  hsqrs.  Justices 

Samuel  Caxeikld  r 
_  ,  r  [of  (juorain. 

Ebenezer  jMarsh    ; 

Isaac  Baldwin  was  appointed  Clerk  and  sworn. 

Mr.  John  Catling,  County  Treasurer  and  Excise  Master. 

~Sh\  Joshua  \\'hitney  of  Canaan  in  said  County,  Attorney. 

"At  the  same  Court  John  Davies  of  Litchfield  in  the  County  of 
Litchfield  pit.  versus  John  Barrett  of  Woodbury  in  sd  County  deft. 
The  ])arties  appeared  and  the  deft,  exhibited  pleas  in  abatement 
of  the  pltf's  writ  which  being  overruled  the  parties  then  joyning  in 
a  demurr.  to  the  declaration  as  on  file,  the  Court  is  of  Opinion  that 
the  Declaration  is  sufficient  in  the  Law  and  thereupon  it  is  con- 
sidered that  the  pit.  shall  recover  of  the  Deft,  the  Sum  of  £1200 
money.     Damages  and  costs  of  Court  allowed  to  be  . 

The  deft,  appeals  from  the  judgment  of  this  Court  to  the  Su- 
perior Court  to  be  holden  at  Litchfield  on  the  second  Tuesday  of 
August  next,  and  the  plat,  with  Mr.  Samuel  Darling  of  New  Haven 
before  this  Court  acknowledged  themselves  bound  to  the  Treasurer 
of  sd  County  in  a  recognizance  of  £200  money  to  prosecute  their 
said  appeal  to  effect  and  answer  all  damages  in  case  they  make  not 
their  plea  good."" 

The  following  is  the  Record  of  the  first  Superior  Court  held 
in  Litchfield  Countv,  and  to  be  found  in  Hartford. 


122  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BEXCH   AND   BAR 

At  a  Superior  Court  holden  at  Litchfield  on  Tuesday  ye   nth, 
day   of   August    Anno   Dommi    1752   anno   ye    Regni    Rt.    Georgii 
Secunde  \'igestum  Sexto. 
Present,  ye 

Honbl.  Tho:mas  Fitch,  Esqr.   Chief  Judge. 
William  Pitkin         | 
EbenEzER  Sylly:\ian  V    .-Issisfanf  Judges. 
Samuel  Lvnde  j 

This  C(Mirt  was  opened  by  Proclamation  and  adjourned  till 
Two  of  }-e  clock  of  ye  afternoon,  and  then  opened  according  to 
adjournment. 

Persons  returned  to  serve  as  jurors  were: 
William  ]SL\rsh^  Xathan  Botchford     ] 

Joshua  Garrett  i-  Litchfield  John  Hitchcock  !•  New  Milford 

Thomas  CatlingJ  Partridge  Thatcher   j 

Timothy  Minor     ^  Xathan  Davis        ^ 

Gideon  Walker      [  Woodbury       Jacob  Benton  >  Harwinton 

Benjamin  Stiles  )  Samuel  Pitelphs   ) 

The  first  recorded  judgment  is  that  of: 
William  Siiivrman     )  (        John  Treat 

and  -   of  Xew  Milford  vs.     }  of 

Roger  Sherman       )  (  Xew  ^^lilford 

At  the  May  session  of  the  General  Assembly  1798  it  was  en- 
acted that  the  Superior  Court  Judges  appoint  a  Clerk  for  each 
County  and  that  the  Records  thereafter  be  kept  in  their  respective 
Counties,  Ijut  that  the  then  existing  records  be  kept  at  Hartford. 

In  obedience  of  this  law  the  Judges  appointed  Frederick  Wol- 
cott,  Esq.  of  Litchfield,  Clerk  for  Litchfield  County,  and  the  first 
term  of  the  Superior  Court  having  its  records  at  Litchfield,  was 
held  at  Litchfield  on  the  Third  Tuesday  of  August  1798  and  was 
"Opened  b\-  proclamation." 

The  record  is  as  follows  : 

State  oe  Connecticut  : 

At  a  Superior  Court  holden  at  Litchfield  within  and  for  the 
County  of  Litchfield,  on  the  Third  Tuesday  of  August  A.  D.  1798, 

Present  : 

The  Hon.  Jesse  Root,  Esq.  Chief  Judge 
Hon.  Jonathan  Sturges  \ 

Hon.  Stephen  M.  Mitchell     f       Assistant 
Hon.  Jonathan  Ingersoll        (         Judges. 
Hon.  Tapping  Reeve  ) 

FkhdEkick  \\'oLC(ti"i'.  Clerk. 


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HISTORICAI.  NOTICS 


123 


The  Attorneys  in  active  practice  in  1798  were  the  following: 


At  Litchfield: 

Tai'I'jxc,  Rkeve 
Elijah  Adams 
JoHx  Allex 
Isaac  Baldwin- 
Uriel  Holmes 
Daniel  W.  Lewis 
Ephraim  Kirdy 
Reynolds  Marvin 
Roger  Skinner 
Aaron  Smith 
L'RiAH  Tracy 
Frederick  Wolcott. 


At  Canaan : 

1 0  1 1  X 


I^LMiiUE 


At  Goshen  : 

Xathax  Hale 

XuAll    ^^'ADIIAMS 

At  Kent : 

]')AkAZlLLA   SlOSSON 

At  New  Milford: 

D WID  S.  BoARDISrAN 

Samuel  Bostwick 
Daniel  Everett 

I'llILO  RUGGI.ES 

At  Norfolk: 

Edmund  Aiken 
Augustus  Pettusone 


At  Plymouth: 

Li  XLS  Fenn 

At  Ron  bury  : 

Rlfus  East,man. 

At  Salisbury : 

Joseph  Caxfield 
Elisha  S'TERLING 
Adoxijah  Strong 

At  Sharon  : 

JuDSON  Caxfield 
John  C.  Smith 
Cyrus  Swax 

At  Southbur}' : 

SniEox  Hinman 
Bexjamix  Stiles,  Jr. 

At  Washington  : 

Daxiel  N.  Brinsmade 
\\'ii,LL\M  Cogswell 

At  W'atertown : 

Eli  Curtiss 

Sa:\iuel  W.  Southmayd 

At  AX'inchester : 

Phineas  Miner 

At  Woodbury : 

Noah  B.  Benedict 
Nathan  Preston 
Nathaniel  Smith 


The  following  members  of  the  Bar  are  now  (April  1907)  residing 
m  the  County :     Those  with  a  *  are  not  in  active  practice. 


Litchfield : 

J.  Gail  Beckwitii,  Jr. 
Francis  Bissell  * 
Wheaton  F.  Dowd 
John  T.  Hubbard 

"D WIGHT  C.  KiLBORN 

William  L.  Ranso]\i  * 
Elbert  P.  Roberts 
Tiio:\L\s  F.  Ryan 
George  M.  Woodruff 
Tajmes  p.  Woodruff 


Bethlehem  : 

Walter  AL  Johnson  * 

Cornwall : 

William  D.  Bosler 
Leonard  J.  NicKERSojf 

Goshen  : 

Charles  A.  Palmer  '^' 

Norfolk : 

RoBBiNs  B.  Stoeckel 


124 


LITCHFIKLD   COUNTY   BENCH  AND   l.Mi 


TNew  Hartford: 

Frkdkrick  a.  JkweUv 
H.  RuGiiR  Jones,  Jr. 
Frank  B.  Munn 

New  Milford : 

John  F.  Addis 
Frank  W.  Marsh 
Henry  S.  Sani-ord 
Fred  M.  Williams 

-North  Canaan : 

SAirujvL  G.  Camp 
Geo.  a.  Marvin 
Alberto  T.  Roraback 
J.  Henry  Rorap.ack 
J.  Clinton  Roraback 

-Plymouth : 

Henry  B.  Plumb  * 
E.  IvEROY  Pond 
Fred  a.  Scott 

-Salisbury : 

Howard  F.  Landon 
Donald  T.  Warner 

Sharon : 

WiLLARD  Baker 

Thomaston : 

Albert  P.  Bradstreet 
E.  T.  Caneield 
Frank  W.  Etiieridge 


Torrington : 

William  \\'.  Bierce 
Bernard  E.  H^iggins 
Walter  Holcomb 
Peter  J.  McDermott 
Willard  a.  Roraback 
Homer  R.  Scoville 
e.  t.  o'sullivan 
Gideon  H.  Welch 
Thos.  J.  Wai,l 

Watertown : 

C.  B.  At  wood  * 

S.  McL.  Buckingham 

Winchester : 

Wm.  H.  Blodgett 
C.  E.  Bristol  * 
Jas.  p.  Glynn 
Samuel  A.  Herman 
Richard  T.  Higgins 
Samuel  B.  Horne 
Wm.  p.  Lawrence  * 
Wilbur  G.  AIanchester 
Geo.  a.  Sanford 
Frank  W.  Se y:\iour 
James  P.  Shelley 
Wellington  B.  Smith 
James  W.  Smith 

Woodl5ur\- : 

James  Huntington 
Arthur  D.  Warner 


The  following  persons  who  have  been  connected  with  this  Bar 
either  by  admission  or  residence,  are  not  now  residing  in  the  County, 
but  are  supposed  to  be  alive  and  residing  elsewhere. 


John  Q.  Adams, 

Negaunee,  Mich. 

Louis  J.  Blake, 
Omaha,  Neb. 

Edavard  J.  Bissell, 
Fond-du-Lac,  Wis. 

John  O.  Boughton, 
Stamford,  Conn. 

David  S.  Calhoun 
Hartford.  Conn. 


Uriah  Case, 

Hartford.  Conn. 

John  D.  Cha:mplin. 
New  York  City. 

Chester  D.  Cleveland. 
Oshkosh,  Wis. 

Frank  D.  Cleveland. 
Hartford,  Conn. 

George  W.  Cole. 
New  York  Citv. 


^m 


V  |/^ 


WILLIAM  L.  RANSOM, 


HISTORICAL   XOTES 


Stewart  \\'.  CdWAX, 

Mount  A'ernon.  N.  Y. 
S.  Gregg  Clark. 

New  jersev. 
E.  T.  Caxfield, 

Hartford,  Conn. 
Spencer  Daytox, 

Phillipa,  \\^est  Va. 
Lee  p.  Deax, 

Bridgeport,  Conn. 
E.  C.  Dempsey, 

Danbury,  Conn. 
William  H.  Ely, 

New  Haven,  Conn. 
JoHx^  R.  Farxum, 

Washington.  D.  C. 

V.    R.    C.    GiDDIXGS, 

Bridgeport,  Conn. 
W.  W.  Guthrie, 

Atkinson.  Kansas. 
Robert  E.  Hall, 

Danbnry,  Conn. 
Cpiarles  R.  Hath  way. 

So.  Manchester. 
jMarcus  H.  Holcomb, 

Soiithington,  Conn. 
JoHX  D.  Howe, 

St.  Fail],  Minn. 
Edward  J.  Hluhard, 

Trinidad,  Col. 
Fraxk  W.  Hri'.r.ARD, 

New  V<irk.  X.   V 
J'raxk  L.  Hl'xgerford, 

New  Britain,  Conn. 
Walter  S.  Jidd. 

New  York  City. 
William  Kxapp, 

Denver,  Col. 
Fred  M.  Koehi.er. 

Livingston.  Mont. 


Fraxk  D.  Linsley. 

Phihnont,  X.  Y. 
Rev.  A.  N.  Lewis, 

New  Haven,  Conn. 
Theodore  J\L  Maltbie^ 

Hartford,  Conn. 
T.  D wight  ^Ierwix, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
Nathax  Morse, 

Akron,  Ohio. 
Frkd  E.  Mygatt, 

New  ^'ork  City. 

\\.\L    P.    MULVILLE. 

New^  Canaan. 
Wm.  H.  CrHARA. 
New  York  City. 

E.  Frisbie  Phelps, 

Xew  York  City. 
Fr?:d  a.  Scott. 

Hartford,  Conn. 
Morris  W.  Seymour, 

P)ridgeport,    Conn. 
(;)kigix  Storrs  Seymour, 

New  York  City. 
George  F.  Sheltox, 

Butte.  Mont. 
Georgia  E.  Taft, 

Unionville,   Conn. 

F.  R.  Tiffany, 


JoHx  O.  Thayer, 

Meriden,  Conn. 
FredivRick  C.  Webster, 

Missoula,  Mont. 
Rev.  Edwix  a.  White, 

Bloomfield,   N.   J. 
JoHx  F.  WvxxE, 

Xew   Haven.   Conn. 


goverxors. 

Governors  of  Connecticut  who  were  members  of  this  bar. 

Gen.  Oliver  Wolcott       1796-1798      Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.        1817-1823 

John  Cotton  Smith       1813-1817      Wm.  W.  Ellsworth       1838-1842 

Cliarles  B.  Andrews       1879-1881 


126 


l.JTCJlFlliLD   COUNTY    BENCH   AND    I!AR 


JUDGES. 

Members   of  this  bar   who   have  been  Judges  of  the   Superior 
Court.     Those  starred,  members  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors. 

Roger   Sherman.^^  1766- 1789  David  C.  Sanford,*  1854-1864 

Andrew   Adams.*  1789-1798  Origen  S.  Seymour,*  1855-1863 

Chief  Justice,  1793.  Gideon  Hall,  1866- 1867 

Tapping  Reeve,*  1798- 181 5  Miles  T.  Granger,*  1867- 1876 

Chief  Justice,  1814. 


Nathaniel    Smith, 
John   Cotton   Smitli,"-^ 
James  Gould.* 
John  T.   Peters, 
Samuel  Church,* 

Chief  Justice,  1847. 
Wm.  W.  Ellsworth.*    1842-1861 
J.  W.   Huntington,*      1834-1840 


Origen  S.  Seymour,      1870- 1874 

Chief  Justice,  1873. 
Roland  Hitchcock,  1874- 1882 
Charles  B.  Andrews,*  188  2-1 901 
Chief  Justice,  1889-1901. 
1833  -1854  Augustus  H.  Fenn,*  1887-1897 
Edward  W.  Sevmour,*  1889-1^,^2 
A.  T.  Roraback,*  1897 


I 806-1819 
1809-1811 
1816-1819 
1818-1834 


CLERKS. 

The  following  members  of  the  bar  have  been  Clerks  of  the  Su- 
perior Court. 


Frederick  Wolcott, 
Origen  S.  Seymour, 
O.  S.  Sevmour, 
G.  H.  Hollister, 
G.  H.  Hollister, 
Elisha  Johnson, 


1798-1836  F.   D.   Beeman,  1851-1854 

1836-1844  Henry  B.  Graves,  1854-1855 

1 846- 1 847  F.  D.  Beeman,  1855-1860 

1844-1845  William  L.  Ransom,  i860- 1887 

1847-1850  D wight  C.  Kilbourn,  1887- 
1850-1851 


ATTORNEYS  FOR  THE   STATE. 

1  he  following  members  of  the  bar  have  been  Attorneys  for  the 
State,  or  King's  Attorney. 


Joshua  Whitney,  1752. 
Samuel  Petibone,  1756. 
Reynold   Marvin,   1764. 
Andrew  Adams,  1772. 
John  Canfield,  1786. 
Tapping  Reeve,   1788. 
Uriah  Tracy,  1789. 
John  Allen,  1800. 
Nathaniel  Smith,  1806. 
Elisha  Sterling,  1814. 
Seth  P.  Beers',  1820. 


Sanuiel  Church,   1825. 
David  C.  Sanford,  1840. 
Leman  Church.  1844. 
John  H.  Hubbard,  1845. 
Leman  Church,    1847. 
John  H.  Hubbard,  1849. 
Julius  B.  Harrison,  1852. 
Gideon  Hall,  1854. 
Charles  F.  Sedgwick,  1856. 
James  Huntington,  1874. 
Donald  T.  Warner,  1896. 


SHERIFFS. 

The    following   have    been    the    Sheriffs    for    Litchfield    County 
from  its  organization : 


DONALD  T.    WARNER. 


HISTORICAL   XOTES 


127- 


Oliver  Wolcott. 
Lynde  Lord. 
John  R.  Landon. 
Moses  Seymour,  Jr.. 
Ozias  Seymour. 
Albert  Sedgwick. 
Charles  A.  Judson. 
Albert  Sedgwick. 
L.  \\'.  Wessells. 


1771- 
i8oi- 
i8ic> 

l82r 
1834 
1835 

18^8 
185+ 


1771 
1801 
1819 
1825 
1834 
■1835 
18^8 
1854 
1866 


Henrv  A.  Botsford.  1866-1869 

George  H.  Baldwin.  1869-1878- 

John  D.  Yale,  1878-1881 

Charles   T-  Porter,  1881-1884. 

Henry  f.  Allen,  1884- 1895 

Edward"  A.  Xellis.  1895-1903 

C.  C.  Middlebrooks.  1903-1907- 

F.  H.  Turkingtcn.  1907- 


COURT  HOUSES. 

The  first  Court  House  of  the  County  was  built  at  Litchfield  in- 
1751-52.  It  stood  on  the  ])ublic  square  directly  in  front  of  and 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  distant  from  the  site  of  the  present 
one.  It  was  a  very  plain  looking  building  about  twenty-five  feet 
wide  by  thirty-six  long  and  fifteen  feet  posts.  In  it  was  a  huge 
stone  chimney  and  a  monstrous  fire-place.  It  was  in  existence  as- 
a  part  of  one  of  the  stores  of  the  village  until  the  great  fire  of  1888.^ 
It  cost  as  near  as  can  be  ascertained  from  the  County  Treasurer's 
books  £3343  4s  <jd.     The  tax  paid  by  each  town  was  as  follows: 


L 

s 

d 

L 

s 

d' 

Litchfield, 

284 

10 

9 

Canaan 

302 

0 

0^ 

Woodbury 

1 124 

TI 

II 

Cornwall 

103 

0 

O' 

New  Milford 

3^^ 

7 

6 

Goshen 

189 

0 

8- 

Kent 

297 

'4 

0 

Turrington 

115 

17 

4 

Sharon 

56 

0 

0 

Harwinton 

129 

12 

7 

Salisbury 

307 

TO 

0 

Xew  Hartford 

105 

0 

O' 

The  second  Court  House  was  located  on  the  same  site  now 
occupied  by  the  present  one.  it  was  given  to  the  County  for  that' 
purpose  by  Moses  Seymour.  It  was  built  in  1789  at  a  cost  to  the- 
County  of  five  thousand  dollars ;  and  whatever  it  cost  over  that 
was  made  up  by  private  contributions.  It  was  designed  by  Wil- 
liam Spratt  an  English  Architect  whose  original  drawing  of  it  is- 
now  in  existence. 

After  many  years  it  was  believed  that  the  spire  was  unsafe  and 
it  was  taken  off  and  the  one  shown  in  our  cut  of  it  was  added' 
which  ruined  the  whole  efifect  of  the  front. 

It  was  a  veritable  temple  of  justice,  the  interior  being  like  a 
church  all  in  one  large  high  room  with  a  jury  room  in  one  corner 
and  a  gallery  at  one  end  with  stairs  leading  up  to  it.  It  took  a 
large  amount  of  wood  to  fill  the  immense  fire-places  and  keep  it 
warm  during  the  sessions  in  the  winter.  The  judges  sat  on  ae. 
raised  platform  at  one  end  with  a  pulpit-like  desk  in  front  of  them- 
and  looked  down  with  great  majesty  and  dignity  upon  the  arenai 
in  front  and  beneath  them. 


128  l.lTCirFlKl.D   COUNTV   BENCH   AND   1;AK 

After  a  number  of  years  (in  i8i8j  an  arrangement  was  made  by 
and  between  the  town  of  Litchfield  and  the  county  officials  where- 
b}-  the  town  was  permitted  to  divide  the  high  room  and  make  an 
upper  and  a  lower  room ;  the  courts  to  use  the  upper  one  and  the 
town  the  lower  room  and  this  arrangement  continued  to  the  time  of 
its  destruction  by  fire  June  lo,  1886.  The  expenses  of  repairs  and 
maintaining-  were  divided  between  the  town  and  county. 

It  has  been  often  remarked  that  this  old  court  room  was  one 
of  the  pleasantest  in  the  State  and  although  devoid  of  every  modern 
convenience,  it  was  a  delight  to  lawyers  and  judges  to  practice 
^therein.  From  its  windows  the  finest  of  landscapes  greeted  the 
*eye,  the  beautiful  lakes  encircled  by  emerald  hills  and  the  mountain 
peaks  beyond  towering  into  the  blue  sky,  the  fertile  and  well 
tilled  farms  on  every  side  made  a  natural  panorama  that  soothed 
the  weary  brain  of  the  tired  lawyer.  The  great  Franklin,  stoves 
filled  with  yit.  Tom  hickory  wood  made  snapping  sparkling  fires. 
The  graceful  arching  over  head  the  quaint  wooden  benches  and 
painted  carvings,  all  delighted  the  eye  and  by  their  simple  efifects 
aided  the  judges  and  worn-out  jurors  in  solving  the  intricate  prob- 
lems they  Avere  called  to  try. 

The  jury  room  in  the  cold  bleak  north-west  corner  was  not  a 
parlor.  A  h\g  sheet  iron  stove  for  wood,  a  dozen  wooden  benches, 
and  a  plain  table  was  the  make-up  of  this  trysting  place :  there 
was  little  prospect  of  comfort  for  an  all  night  session  of  a  dis- 
agreeing jury  and  they  seldom  lingered  patiently  about.  Their 
verdicts  generally  were  rendered  altogether  too  speedily  for  the  poor 
prisoner  in  the  box  or  the  fellow  who  lost  his  case. 

The  States  Attorney's  room  was  entirely  wanting.  In  those 
primitive  times  those  officials  carried  their  all  in  their  heads  and 
pockets  and  what  the  attorney  failed  to  do  in  his  last  argument  the 
Court  carefully  supplemented  in  his  charge.  The  practice  in  the 
criminal  cases  was  largely  a  degree  of  eloquence  and  if  the  testi- 
mony was  weak  the  advocate  was  strong  and  never  failed  to  men- 
tion what  the  witnesses  ought  to  have  said. 

The  Clerk's  office  was  also  absent  and  he  was  permitted  to 
rent  at  his  own  expense  an  office  in  some  other  building  and  keep 
the  records  and  files  wherever  he  chose.  The  judge's  room  was 
not  thought  of  in  the  olden  davs.  Whv  should  he  need  one?  No 
findings  of  facts  were  required  of  him  and  when  the  sheriff  ad- 
journed the  court  his  duties  ceased. 

On  the  morning  of  the  nth  of  June,  1886  nothing  remained  of 
this  old  building  where  so  many  memories  clustered  but  the  two 
great  chimneys.  The  fire  fiend  in  its  ruthless  track  had  swept 
everything  away. 

Directly  after  the  fire  in  1886  attempts  were  made  to  divide  the 
County  or  divert  the  Court  to  other  places,  and  the  town  of  Litch- 
field  began   to   erect  another   Court   House   which   was   practically 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  1 29 

completed  about  the  1st  of  August  1888.  It  was  a  wooden  struc- 
ture somewhat  hke  the  former  one  with  good  arrangements  for 
court,  clerk,  jury,  judges  and  attorneys  rooms.  On  the  morning 
of  the  8th  of  August  1888  before  it  had  been  turned  over  to  or 
occupied  by  the  County  this  also  lay  in  ashes. 

Immediately  the  town  took  action  towards  building  another 
Court  House  and  appointed  a  committee  consisting  of  Hon.  Charles 
B.  Andrews.  Dr.  Henry  W.  Buel,  Henry  B.  Graves,  Esq.,  with 
Jacob  Morse  and  Garner  B.  Curtiss,  selectmen  of  the  town.  The 
result  of  their  action  is  the  present  building  at  Litchfield  built  of 
stone  and  practically  fire  proof  with  excellent  accomodations  for 
all  court  purposes  and  presented  to  the  County  by  the  town  and 
accepted  bv  the  county  commissioners  in  behalf  of  and  for  the 
county  on  the  nth  of  March,  1890. 

Meanwhile  the  agitation  about  dividing  the  county  and  court 
business  continued  until  finally  it  resulted  in  an  act  of  the  legisla- 
ture allowing  courts  to  be  held  at  Litchfield.  Winchester  and  New 
Mil  ford  upon  the  two  latter  towns  providing  suitable  accomoda- 
tions. Whereupon  the  town  of  Winchester  leased  to  the  county 
such  a  building  with  suitable  accomodations  for  the  courts  of  the 
county  on  the  9th  of  August,  1887  and  the  town  of  Xew  Milford 
also  leased  such  building  and  accomodations  on  the  T5th  day  of 
.\ugust,  1887  and  the  courts  are  now  held  at  each  of  said  places 
l)racticallv  holding  court  whcre\-cr  it  is  most  convenient  to  try  the 
cases. 

In  T905  the  town  of  Winchester  increased  the  Court  accomo- 
dations bv  adding  four  large  spacious  rooms  and  fire  proof  vault 
with  metal  fixtures,  making  this  Court  building  one  of  the  best  in 
the  State  for  its  purposes. 

In  1907  a  bill  was  presented  before  the  General  Assembly  of 
Connecticut,  ordering  the  removal  to  Winchester  from  Litchfield, 
of  the  civil  records  and  files  of  the  Superior  Court,  with  the  seal 
and  Clerk,  making  Winchester  practically  the  main  office  of  the 
Court.  It  also  provided  for  the  removal  of  all  the  files  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas  Court  and  seal,  to  the  Winsted  Court  House.  The  bill, 
however,  failed  of  passage. 

.  SELECTING  JURYMEN. 

The  Statutes  of  Connecticut  provide  for  the  selection  of  jury- 
men for  the  several  towns,  and  also  prescribe  the  number  to  which 
each  town  is  entitled. 

Various  ways  of  selecting  these  men  have  been  provided  in 
former  vears,  but  the  present  method  seems  to  have  been  more 
nearly  satisfactory  than  any  of  the  past  ones. 

The  Selectmen  of  each  town  are  required  to  forward  to  the 
Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court  during  the  month  of  May  the  names 
of  twice  the  number  the  town  is  entitled  to.     The  fudges  at  their 


130  LITCHFIELD   COUNTY   BENCH   AND  BAR 

annual  meeting  in  June  appoint  two  Jury  Commissioners  to  act 
with  the  Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court,  who  is  by  Statute  a  Jurj 
Commissioner,  who  meet  on  the  second  Monday  of  July  and  select 
one  half  of  the  names  returned  by  the  Selectmen.  These  names, 
so  selected,  are  printed  on  slips  of  paper,  and  those  of  each  town 
are  placed  in  a  box  by  themselves,  and  are  the  names  of  the  men 
liable  for  jury  duty  from  each  town  for  the  year  from  the  following 
September  first.  When  a  petit  jury  is  required,  the  Clerk  draws 
them  without  seeing  the  name,  from  such  towns  as  he  desires,  in 
the  presence  of  a  Judge  and  a  Sherifif. 

ABOUT  JURIES. 

This  important  part  of  the  Court  deserves  a  very  honorable 
mention.  The  juries  of  this  County  have  been  composed  of  the 
very  best  class  of  men  ;  men  of  good  judgment  and  sterling  common 
sense,  seldom  carried  away  with  the  oratory  or  pathos  of  the  ad- 
vocate or  losing  sight  of  the  issues  of  the  case. 

There  are  some  incidents  related  of  jury  trials  that  tend  to  show 
that  they  are  but  men  and  liable  to  some  of  the  caprices  of  human 
nature.  The  common  style  of  voting  blank  upon  a  case  by  one  or 
more  of  them  on  the  first  ballot  is  of  very  little  consequence  only 
showing  that  some  people  do  not  form  conclusions  as  rapidly  as 
others. 

That  the  jurymen  do  not  always  agree  with  the  Court  is  illus- 
trated by  a  case  in  which  Judge  Carpenter  in  charging  the  jury 
remarked  "Now  gentlemen,  if  you  believe  this  incredible  story  you 
will  convict  the  prisoner,  but  if  you  do  not  believe  it  you  must 
acquit  him."  The  jury  after  a  long  consultation  disagreed.  Upon 
receiving  further  instruction  in  which  the  incredible  story  was  dis- 
credited still  more  strongly,  they  again  retired  and  after  mature 
deliberation  they  still  disagreed.  Another  strong  instruction,  re- 
tirement and  disagreement,  when  they  were  discharged  from  further 
consideration  of  the  case.  It  was  ascertained  they  stood  eleven  for 
conviction  and  one  for  acquittal. 

In  another  case  wherein  a  man  sued  an  officer  for  false  im- 
prisonment it  was  admitted  that  the  officer  was  liable  and  the 
judge  charged  the  jury  that  they  were  the  ones  to  assess  the 
daniages.  The  offense  was  where  an  officer  arrested  a  drunk  and 
put  him  in  the  town  lockup  over  night,  intending  to  try  him  in  the 
morning;  before  the  trial  however  the  man's  friends  hearing  of 
his  condition  went  to  the  lockup  opened  the  door  and  carried  him 
away.  After  being  out  a  long  time  the  jury  returned  much  to  every 
ones'  surprise  a  verdict  for  the  defendant.  The  explanation  that  the 
jury  gave  was  that  the  man  was  rescued  by  his  friends  before  the 
officer  had  had  a  reasonable  time  to  ])rosecute  the  offense. 

A  man  was  prosecuted  for  an  assault  and  battery  of  rather  an 
aggravated  nature:  he  claimed  it  was  done  in  self  defense.     It  wn- 


t 

0 

^^^^Bk      .^>.     "^^^^B 

i^— ft      ,  -.— ^ — ••■• ^ „» 

;i)\\  AKD  W.   SEYMOUR. 


•  Historical  notes  131 

shown  tliat  the  parties  had  an  altercation  and  the' accused  followed 
up  the  complainant  and  pounded  him.  The  prisoner  admitted  it, 
but  claimed  he  was  obliged  to  follo\V;.up  for  fear  that  the  other  man 
would,  as  soon  as  he  got  a  little  distance  from  him.  turn  around 
and  shoot  him.  The  jur\-  pondered  a  long  while,  then  returned  to 
the  Court  Room  for  instructions.  JThe  foreman  said  they  wished 
to  know  how  far  the  law  allowed  a  man  to  follow  up  another  with 
a  sled  stake  in  self  defense. 

WlTXfi^SSES. 

Of  course  our  Courts  had  all  sorts  of  witnesses  to  deal  with 
from  the  garrulous  man  who  knows  everything',  to  the  reticent  man 
who  knows  nothing  and  has  forgotten  that. 

A  few  specimens  are  j^reserved  in  the  traditions  of  our  elders.' 

A  child  was  asked  if  he  knew  the  nature  of  an  oath  and  he  re- 
plied "Xo  sir."  Then  the  kind  hearted  judge  leaned  over  the  side 
of  his  desk  and  smilingly  asks  "My  son  don't  you  know  what  _\c)u're 
going  to  tell?"  "Yes,  sir."  said  the  boy,  "that  old  bald  headed 
lawyer  over  there  told  me  what  I  nmst  sav."  "Administer  the 
oath,  Mr.  Clerk." 

A  witness  in  a  criminal  case  lialed  from  a  unsavory  ])lace  called 
"Pinch  (lUl  ;"  he  was  duly  sworn  and  upon  lieing  asked  his  name, 
gave  it.  The  next  ([uestion  was  "Where  do  you  reside  .■""  No 
answer  came.  The  (piestion  was  repeated  twice  and  the  last  time 
with  great  severity,  ^riie  wilness  turned  with  dignity  to  the  judge 
and  said,  "Must  I  answer  that  ((uestion?"  "\\'h_\-  u^t  ?"  said  tlie 
Court,  "llecause"  said  the  witness  "I  have  been  told  that  no  man 
was  obliged  to  criminate  himself." 

Witnesses  are  often  ridiculed  for  making  e\'asi\e  au>\vers  to 
attorne\s'  cpiestions  but  ])eriiai)s  the_\'  do  not  al^vays  fullx'  under- 
stand the  query.  The  following  is  a  question  asked  by  a  learned 
attornev  in  the  trial  of  a  tax  case,  taken  from  tlie  Stenogra])her's 
notes : 

0.  "W  liat  I  want  to  ask  _\du  is  whether  com])aring  liis  land 
with  the  other  lantls  that  you  have  been  swearing  about  here,  you 
have  sworn  to  some  30  other  farms,  and  in  com])arison,  that  is,  I 
mean  whether,  how  should  you  take  them  in  comj^arison,  how 
should  \()ti  consider  them,  if  you  take  that  as  a  basis,  they  are 
assessed  for  $3,000.  Taking  that  as  a  basis  for  \-otu-  comparison, 
how  should  yon  start?" 

STKXOC.R.M'IIER. 

In  1884  the  General  Assembly  passed  an  act  providing  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Stenographer  for  the  Superion  Court  in  each  of 
the  Counties.  About  1886  Mr.  Leonard  W.  Cogswell  was  ap- 
pointed for  this  County  and  has  held  the  position  since  that  date. 

Leonard  W.   Cogswell,  Esq.,  the  official  stenographer  is  a  na- 


132 


l.lTCIIFll'M)   COrXTV    i:i;XCIl    AM)    BAR 


LKOXARD    AV.    COC.SWKLL. 

tive  of  Litchfield  County,  and  was  horn  in  Xew  Preston,  in  July 
1863,  ^'"^'l  enjoyed  all  the  lit^hts  and  shadows  of  a  farmer's  son  on 
a  rugged  farm  upon  the  sicle  of  Mt.  lUishnell.  He  polished  up  an 
education  received  at  the  districe  school  and  Village  Academy  by 
a  term  at  Claverack  College  at  Hudson,  X.  Y.  In  1884  he  quit 
the  farm  and  went  to  X"ew  Haven  and  learned  short  hand.  In 
1886  he  was  appointed  official  Stenographer  of  Litchfield  County, 
and  holds  the  same  position  for  Windham  County.  His  services 
are  in  great  demand  during  the  sessions  of  the  Legislature,  by  the 
Committees  thereof. 

He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  of  X^ew  Haven  County  in  June, 
1897,  '^'i^l  resides  in  Xew  Haven.  In  the  preparation  of  this 
memoir  we  are  indebted  to  him  for  the  preservation  of  the  re- 
marks at  the  lianquet,  and  for  poetical  selections  herein. 


studkxt's  iJi^E. 

At  the  Bar  Dinner  in  1901  Judge  Roraback  in  his  remarks  gave 
a  few  reminisences  of  his  student  days  which  are  worthy  of  preser- 
vation as  illustrating  how  lawyers  were  made  in  the  country  of- 
fices. Upon  being  introduced  by  the  Toastmaster  lie  responded 
as  follows : 

Mr.  Toastmaster,  and  gentlemen  of  the  Litchfield  County  Bar: 
I   hardly  expected  to  make  a  si)eech,   but   the   reference  that  was 


ALBERTO  T.  RORABACK, 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  133 

made  bv  mv  distinguished  friend,  Donald  J.  Warner  carries  me  back 
to  the  month  of  April,  1870.  That  is  almost  32  years.  I  then 
commenced  the  study  of  Blackstone  in  his  office.  Well,  I  pounded 
away  at  Blackstone  for  five  months,  and  learned  it  pretty  thorough- 
ly. As  I  remember  it,  if  it  had  been  set  to  music  I  think  I  could 
have  sung  it.  It  was  pretty  dry  work  and  pretty  hard  w^ork.  But 
one  morning  D.  J.  came  in,  and  he  says,  "Roraback,  you  have  been 
pounding  away  at  Blackstone  some  time,  would'nt  you  like  a 
change?"  Well,  I  hardly  knew  what  was  coming,  whether  it  was 
a  change  from  Blackstone  to  Chitty,  or  what  it  was,  but  I  looked 
up  at  him,  and  I  said  I  thought  I  w^ould.  "All  right,"  he  said,  "I 
have  got  a  client  for  you."  I  could  hardly  believe  it.  A  real 
client  with  a  case?  It  was  the  first  ray  of  light,  the  firs,t  gleam 
of  hope  in  those  long  months  ;  to  have  a  client,  a  real  live  client. 
He  brought  him  in.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  him.  He  was 
colored.  His  trousers  were  stuck  in  the  tops  of  his  boots,  he  was 
out  at  the  seat  of  his  pants,  but  he  was  a  client ;  my  first  client.  Tt 
was  my  first  case,  and  I  was  happy.  The  case  was  returnable  be- 
fore Daniel  Pratt,  a  Justice  who  had  his  office  in  the  village  of 
Salisbur\-.  I  went  to  work  to  ])reiiarc  my  case,  and  at  the  time 
stated  for  the  trial  I  was  there  with  my  client.  I  made  the  great, 
supreme,  and  sublime  effort  of  my  life.  There  was'nt  any  attorney 
for  the  ])laintiff.  I  appeared  for  the  defense.  It  was'nt  necessary 
that  the  plaintiff  should  be  represented.  The  magistrate  occupied 
that  position,  and  wdien  I  had  finished  my  argument  he  made  his. 
It  was  very  eft'ective  :  iust  $3r>.22  for  the  plaintiff'  and  costs.  \\'ell. 
of  course  I  felt  crestfallen.  I  came  down  to  the  office  the  next 
morning,  and  Donald  J.  the  elder  came  in,  and  he  asked  me  how 
T  got  along  with  the  case.  I  had  to  tell  him  I  got  beat.  Thorough- 
ly beaten.  And  he  said  to  me,  "Oh,  well,  never  mind  that.  You 
will  come  across  those  little  misfortunes  once  in  a  while  in  vour 
practice  of  law,  but,  of  course,  you  won't  get  an\-  pay."  "I  did.  I 
got  my  pay."  "You  did?  How  much  did  "you  get?"  "$6.""$6." 
Donald  J.  says,  "that  is  better  than  a  victory :  I  have  been  defending 
that  cussed  nigger  in  season  and  out  of  season  for  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  and  I  never  received  a  cent."  and  he  grasped  me  warmly 
by  the  hand,  and  he  says,  "Roraback,  you  will  be  a  success."  That 
was  case  Xo.  i.     My  first  case. 

Case  Xo.  2  was  the  case  of  Julius  Closes  vs.  Virgil  Roberts. 
Virgil  Roberts  was  an  old  farmer  that  lived  down  on  the  Gay  St. 
road,  as  I  remember  it.  When  the  case  came  to  trial  D.  J.  said  to 
me  that  I  had  better  come  along  down  and  write  the  evidence.  So 
I  went  along  down  and  wrote  the  evidence,  and  when  the  evidence 
was  all  in  D.  J.  spoke  to  me  over  across  the  table  and  he  says, 
"Roraback,  you  get  up  and  make  the  opening  argument."  I  was 
demoralized,  for  gentlemen,  sitting  on  the  other  side  was  Gen'l. 
Charles   S.   Sedgwick.     You  never  saw  him,  most  of  you,  but  he 


134 


LITCHFIELD  COUKTV  BKXCII  AND  BAR 


was  a  man  tliat  stood  six  feet  four  in  his  stockings,  and  weighed 
250  lbs.  I  am  afraid  I  made  very  poor  work  of  it  with  that  great 
giant  on  the  other  side.  I  was  afraid.  T  verily  believe  if  the  old 
General  had  stamped  his  foot  and  yelled  "scat."  I  would  have  gone 
through  the  window  and  forever  abandoned  the  idea  of  studying 
law.  But  we  fought  it  out.  I  got  up  and  made  my  argument, 
and  then  the  old  General  got  uj)  and  made  No.  2,  and  then  Donald 
T.  Warner  made  the  closing.  Talk  about  wit,  and  talk  about  sar- 
casm, talk  about  eloquence,  I  learned  the  lesson  right  there  and 
then  that  it  was  not  the  avoirdupois  of  the  lawyer  that  wins  cases. 
Gen.  Sedgwick  was  three  score  and  ten.  He  lived  along  a  few 
-ears,  and  wrote  a  little  pamphlet  on  his  experiences  in  fifty  years 
at  the  Litchfield  Countv  Bar.     He  was  then  state  attorney. 


BAR  LIBRARY. 

The  matter  of  having  a  Bar  Library  at  the  Court  House  was 
attended  to  at  an  early  date.  The  following  action  of  the  Bar  is  an 
interesting  Record. 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  Bar  December  29,  1819. 

The  following  Report  of  a  Committee  having  been  read  was 
adopted.  "To  the  Bar  of  the  County  of  Litchfield.  The  Sub- 
scriliers  having  been  appointed  by  said  Bar,  a  Committee  to  enquire 
into  the  expediency  of  commencing  a  Law  Library  for  the  use  of  the 
Bar.  (and  if  deemed  expedient  to  devise  some  mode  by  which  it 
may  be  obtained),  having  attended  to  the  subject  beg  leave  to  re- 
port in  part,  That  the  Bar  now  owns  six  volumns  of  the  Statutes 
of  ^Massachusetts,  the  two  volumns  of  the  revised  edition  of  the 
Statutes  of  New  York,  published  in  1813,  and  the  two  volumes  of 
the  Statutes  of  Vermont  published  in  1808;  that  there  now  remains 
unexpended  the  sum  of  Seventeen  Dollars  formerly  raised  by  the 
Bar  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  Statutes  of  other  States. 

And  further  report  that  it  is  exi^edient  that  there  be  raised  by 
the  Ijar  the  further  sum  of  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-six  Dollars  to 
be  paid  and  apportioned  to  the  members  thereof  as  follows : 


Elisha  Sterling 
Jno.  G.  Mitchell 
Reuben  Hunt 
W.  S.  Holabird 
Calvin  Butler 
Chas.  B.  Phelps 
Nath'l.  Perry,  Jr. 
R.  R.  Hinman 
Perry  Smith 
Nath'l.  Perry 
Cyrus  Swan 
Asa  Bacon 


$6.00     Jabez  W.  Huntington  5.00 

3.00      Samuel  Church  5.00 

Wm.  M.  Burrall  5.00 

Michael  F.  Alills  4.00 

I  l()ll)r(iok  Curtiss  4.00 

Nathaniel  B.  Smith  3.00 

Roger  Mills  4.00 

Philo  N.  Heacock  2.00 

Homer  Swift  .^.00 

Geo.  Wheaton  3.00 

Phineas  Miner  6.00 

I 'Inlander  Wheeler  3.00 


2.00 
3.00 
4.00 
5.00 

2.00 
4.00 
6.00 
4.00 
5.00 
7.00 


IIISTORICAI,   NOTES  135 

Leman  Church  4.00      Wm.  Cogswell  3.00 

Joseph  Miller  5.00      Ansel  Sterling  5.00 

Wm.  G.  Williams  5.00      Theodore  Xorth  4.00 

Xoah  B.   Hencdict  7.00      Seth  P.  Beers  6.00 

John  Strong  2.00      Matthew  Minor  3.00 

Jos.  B.  Bellamy  4.00      Isaac   Leavenworth  4.00 

David  S.  Boardman  6.00 

.And  that  said  sums  of  Seventeen  and  One  Hundred  and  Fifty- 
si.x  Dollars  with  such  further  sum  as  the  Court  may  appropriate  from 
the  County  Treasurer  for  that  purpose,  be  applied  to  the  purchase 
of  the  Law  Books  hereinafter  mentioned,  or  such  other  Books  as 
the  I'ar  may  hereafter  direct,  viz : 

Kirb}'"s  Reports,  Root's  Reiwrts,  Day's  Cases  in  Error,  Con- 
necticut Reports,  Swift's  Evidence,  Swift's  System.  Chitty's  Plead- 
ings, Lane's  Pleadings,  l'liilli])'s  Evidence.  Johnson's  Reports,  Mas- 
sachusetts Reports. 

All  of  wliicli  is  rcs]iccttull\'  submitted. 

Signed  per  order, 

S.  P.  l>eers.  Chainiiaii. 

The  bcHiks  mentioned  in  this  report  were  purchased  and  are 
now  in  the  Lil)rary  at  Litchheld.  The  only  provision  for  the  in- 
crease of  the  Library  which  I  find  is  an  admission  fee  of  Five  Dol- 
lars from  a  new  attorne}',  until  1874,  nor  do  the  l>ooks  in  the  Li- 
brary show  additions  of  any  account. 

In  1874,  it  was  X'oted  As  a  standing  Rule  of  the  Bar,  that  each 
member  pay  to  the  treasurer  thereof  the  sum  of  One  Dollar  each, 
vearlv,  to  be  ex]:)ended  in  the  purchase  of  Books  for  the  benefit  and 
use  of  the  said  I'.ar.  Said  payments  to  l)e  made  at  the  annual  meet- 
ing in  each  year. 

In  1877  the  Legislature  enacted  a  Bill  providing  for  the  forma- 
tion of  Countv  Law  Lilirary  .Associations.  The  County  Commis- 
sioners were  to  ])ay  in  their  discretion  each  year  on  the  first  of 
Januar\-  a  sum  not  exceeding  Three  Hundred  Dollars,  for  the 
supi^ort  thereof.  The  Litchfield  County  Law  Library  Association 
was  duly  organized  and  received  money  from  the  County  Treasurer 
for  one  year,  after  which  the  discretion  of  the  Commissioners  did 
not  mature,  and  payments  ceased,  for  some  years.  In  1897  an  act 
was  passed  making  the  payment  obligatory  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  to  each  of  the  libraries  at  Litchfield.  Winsted  and  Xew 
I\Iiiford,  since  which  time  a  good  supjjly  of  law  books  may  be  found 
in  each  Court  House. 

At  the  session  of  the  Legislature  of  1907  an  act  was  passed  re- 
quiring the  County  Commissioners  to  pay  each  library  four  hundred 
dollars  a  year. 

At  Xew  Milford  large  accessions  came  from  bequests  of  Bros. 
Henry  S.  Sanford  and  James  H.  McMahon. 


u<> 


.nClll-li;].!)   COL'XTN'    1;i:NCH    and    I'.AR 


^  wt^ 


jA:\rEs  [1.  :\ic.M Aiiox. 


In  1906  l>r(i.  .\icMahon  left  liy  liis  will  the  sum  of  $1,200  to 
he  e((nall_v  (li\i(k'(I  between  the  three  libraries,  which  was  available 
in   1907.  and  has  been  paid  to  the  committees. 

Tn  each  Court  House  may  be  found  a  first  class  working-  library 
with  some  of  tlie  Re])orts  of  other  States. 

In  1900  the  liar  voted  that  all  the  law  books  of  the  Bar  As- 
sociation l)e  ])rescnte(l  to  the  Litchfield  County  Law  Library  As- 
sociation, so  that  all  the  books  are  under  one  manag'ement. 

AAKONT    WHITE    FL'XD. 

Another  branch  of  these  libraries  is  ])u.rchascd  l)y  the  income 
derived  from  a  ])e(|uest  of  xAaron  White,  a  lawyer  w4io  by  his  will 
left  to  each  Count v  Law  Library  one  thousand  dollars  for  certain 
classes  of  books. 

The  following-  account  of  Mr.  White  who  deceased  in  1886, 
taken  from  a  newsi)aper,  will  no  doubt  be  of  interest  in  this  con- 
nection and  is  worthy  of  preservation. 

A  Loston  Clobc  correspondent  tells  the  followino-  story  of  Aaron 
White  of  Ouinnebaug' : — 

Aaron  White  has  fi.^ured  in  his  life  as  the  most  eccentric  man 
in  this   localitv,   and   one   who   is   widclv   known    in    Afassachusetts. 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  1^7 

Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  He  was  born  in  Boylston,  Tvlass.. 
October  8,  1798,  and  was  the  eldest  of  ten  children,  seven  boys  and 
three  eirls,  nine  of  whom  are  now  livino-.  He  entered  Harvard 
colle.G:e,  t,n-aduating-  in  a  class  of  sixty-eight  members  in  1817.  Of 
his  classmates  only  seven  are  now  living.  Mr.  White,  in  reconnting 
incidents  of  his  college  life,  shows  a  wonderful  memory.  Among 
his  classmates  were  the  late  Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury  of  Worcester, 
the  Hon.  George  Bancroft,  the  Hon.  Calel)  Gushing,  whom  he  con- 
sidered the  most  talented  man  he  ever  met;  Samuel  Sewall,  now 
living  in  Boston  ;  Dr.  John  Green  of  Lowell,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tyng  of 
the  Episcopal  church,  now  living  in  Phildelphia  :  John  D.  Wells  of 
Boston,  one  of  the  greatest  anatomists  of  his  daw  and  Professor 
Alva  ^^'oods,  formerly  president  of  the  Transylvania  college  in  the 
South,  living  in  Providence.  When  the  "Dorr  War"  broke  out 
Squire  \\'hite  was  living  in  Woonsocket.  "Governor"  Dorr,  be- 
ing at  the  head  of  the  controvesy.  called  u])on  Mr.  White,  for  advice 
^'as  a  friend  and  acquaintance.""  which  resulted  in  frequent  visits 
between  them.  This  resulted  afterwards  in  both  White  and  Dorr 
being  ol)lige(l  to  leave  the  state,  both  going  to  Thompson,  Conn. 
Soon  after.  Air.  White  secretly  got  Dorr  into  Xew  Hampshire. 
The  authorities  in  Rhode  Island  used  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of 
Squire  \\'hite,  in  which  he  was  called  the  "commander-in-chief"  of 
the  forces  that  opixx'^ed  the  state.  They  called  on  Governor  Chauncy 
Cleveland  of  Connecticut  for  assistance,  which  was  refused.  They 
afterwards  called  on  Governor  John  Davis  of  Massachusetts  to  ar- 
rest \\'hite  when  he  came  to  Dudley.  W^ebster  or  Worcester,  but 
Governor  Davis  as  in  the  case  of  Governor  Cleveland,  refused  to 
grant  the  recjuest.  Both  governors  were  in  sympath\'  with  Dorr 
and  White.  The  Rhode  Island  authorities  then  threatened  to  send 
an  armed  force  to  kidnap  Scpiire  White  at  his  home  in  Quinnebaug. 
Governor  Davis  then  issued  a  warrant  for  White's  arrest  if  seen  in 
Massachusetts,  but  this  warrant  was  not  intended  to  harm  S(|uire 
\\'hite.  for  it  was  to  run  only  thirty  days  from  its  date.  The  result 
was  that  Squire  White  remained  unmolested  in  his  quiet  home  on 
the  banks  of  the  placid  Quinnebaug.  He  is  a  lawyer  and  his  busi- 
ness has  been  such  as  settling  estates,  drawing  up  wills,  giving  ad- 
A'ice,  etc..  and  he  has  always  been  considered  a  safe  man  to, consult 
on  such  business.  \\  hen  he  was  in  his  prime  he  was  six  feet  in 
height,  lightly  built  and  very  long-limbed,  weighing  160  pounds. 
He  is  nearly  blind,  his  eyesight  having  been  failing  for  some  five 
years. 

In  his  college  days  he,  with  Caleb  Gushing,  collected  several 
rare  coins.  Later  he  engaged  in  collecting  old-fashioned  coppers. 
\\'hen  the  government  called  in  the  old  coppers  in  1863  or  there- 
abouts, issuing  new  ones,  and  for  three  years  afterwards,  he  was 
most  active  in  picking  them  up.  His  reason  for  going  into  this 
husiness  was  that  he  thought  it  very  profitable.     He  visited  the  mint 


138  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

at  Philadelpliia,  making-  arrangements  with  the  officers  to  take 
these  coppers  and  give  him  new  pennies  in  retnrn,  the  government 
to  pay  all  expenses  in  shipping  to  and  from  his  home.  This  busi- 
ness, which  he  has  carried  on  for  some  fifteen  years,  as  a  whole  has 
netted  him  a  large  amount  of  profit.  He  has  some  instances  sold 
copper  coins  of  rare  date  for  from  $1  to  $3,  and  in  one  case  he  re- 
ceived $5  for  a  rare  copper.  He  paid  from  forty  to  forty- four 
cents  per  pound,  "good,  bad  and  indifferent,"  selecting  the  good 
ones  from  them  and  shipping  the  rest  to  the  mint.  In  his  trips  he 
visited  the  principal  cities  and  large  towns  in  New  England,  collect- 
ing many  thousand  coins  as  a  result. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  White  in  1886.  his  executors  found  mam- 
barrels  of  copper  cents — of  the  ''not  rare"  ones.  About  four  tons 
of  these  coins  were  redeemed  bv  the  Sub-Treasurv  at  Washington. 

Extracts  fro:\i  aarox  white's  will. 

Fourth. — (  )ut  of  the  residue  of  the  estates  so  g"iven  in  trust  as 
aforesaid,  to  pay  to  the  Treasurers  of  the  present  eig^ht  Counties 
in  the  State  of  Connecticut,  to  each  the  sum  of  One  Thousand 
Dollars  in  lawful  money,  to  be  by  them  received  in  trust,  as  funds 
for  the  procurement  and  maintenance  of  County  liar  Libraries 
in  their  respective  Counties,  in  their  several  Count\'  Court  Houses, 
for  the  sole  use  of  the  Judges  ami  Clerks  of  Courts  therein,  ]Mem- 
bers  of  the  liar,  and  their  students  at  law  while  in  the  offices  of 
said  r.ar  ineml:)ers,  in  their  respective  Counties;  which  funds  or  the 
annual  income  thereof,  as  said  liar  Members  may  direct,  shall  l)e 
expended  imdcr  their  direction  in  the  jnu'chase  of  Hooks  of  His- 
tory, and  Hooks  of  Moral  and  Political  I'hilosopliy. 

And  in  case  said  residue  last  mentioned  be  not  sufficient  for 
the  ])ayment  of  all  said  legacies  to  said  Counties  in  full,  then  said 
residue,  in  ccpial  i)ortions  to  saitl  Counties  for  the  purposes  afore- 
said shall  be  deemed  a  fullfilment  of  their  trust.  Such  payment 
to  be  made  within  three  years  from  the  time  of  m\-  decease.''' 

CENTENNIAL. 

.\t  a  meeting  of  the  Litchfield  Coimt\  Har  held  at  the  Court 
House  in  Litchfield  on  the  4th  day  of  January  1851  the  following- 
preamble  and  resolution  was  adopted: 

Whereas,  During  the  present  year  a  century  will  elapse  since 
the  organization  of  the  County  of  Litchfield  ;  and 

Whereas,  A  Centennial  celebration  of  that  event  has  been  under 
consideration.  Therefore 

Resolnei).  That  Chas.  P..  Phelps,  O.  S.  Sevmour,  John  H.  Hub- 
bard, Gideon  Hall,  (;.  11.  Hollister,  J.  15.  Harrison  and  J.  B. 
Foster  Hsc|uires,  be  a  Committee  of  the  P>ar  to  call  a  meeting  of 
citizens  of  the   County   to  consider   that   subject  and   to  take   such 


F.  I).  r.KK^rAX 


HISTORICAL  XOTES  139 

order  thereon  bv  appointment  of  a  Committee  of  arrangements  or 
otherwise  as  shall  be  thought  best. 

F.  D.  Beeman,  Clerk. 
In  pursuance  of  these  proceedings  the  Centennial  Celebration 
of  August  1 85 1  was  held.  Several  thousand  people  were  present. 
Judg-e  Samuel  Church  delivered  the  Historical  address  which  is 
reprinted  in  this  voluiiie.  Horace  Bushnell  the  sermon  and  John 
I'ierpont  the  poem. 

DAVID  DAGGliTT. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Bar  of  Litchfield  County  during  the  August 
Term  1834,  a  Committee  was  appointed  to  prepare  an  address  to 
the  Hon.  David  Daggett,  Chief  Justice  of  the  State,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  near  approach  of  his  term  of  judicial  service,  which  Com- 
mittee reported  to  the  l')ar  the  following  address,  which  was  l^v 
order  of  the  Bar  communicated  to  the  Hon.  David  Daggett,  and 
together  with  the  reply  thereto  was  ordered  to  be  recorded  upon 
the  records  of  the  Bar. 

"To  the  Hon.  David  Daggett,  Chief  Justice  of  the  State  of 
Connecticut.  Sir: — The  members  of  the  Bar  of  tlic  County  of 
Litchfield,  having  heard  from  a  communication  which  you  made 
to  the  Legislature  of  the  State  at  its  last  session  that  your  judicial 
term  of  office  service  will  cx])ire  by  Constitutional  limitation  dur- 
ing the  present  year,  and  consequently  not  expecting  to  meet  you 
again  in  your  official  character,  beg  leave  to  exi:>ress  to  you  the  high 
sense  which  they  entertain  of  the  ability,  integrity'  and  imnartiality, 
which  \-ou  have  manifested  upon  the  bench,  and  to  thank  you 
cordiallv  for  the  uniform  kindness  and  courtesy  with  which  you 
have  treated  them  when  they  have  had  occasion  to  a]:)pear  before 
vou  to  discharge  the  arduous  duties  of  their  profession.  In  taking- 
leave  of  \()U  we  cannot  but  recollect  that  it  is  now  rising  of  forty 
\'ears  since  xon  first  formed  a  connection  with  the  Bar  of  this 
County,  and  that  you  were  long  associated  in  practice  with  Adams, 
Reeve,  Smith,  Tracy,  Allen,  Kirby,  Benedict,  Slosson  and  South- 
ma\'de,  whose  l)right  names  are  inscribed  on  our  records  and  whose 
memorv  will  be  cherished  so  long  as  learning,  talent  and  virtue 
shall  command  esteem ;  nor  can  we  forget  that  your  labors  may 
be  traced  in  the  very  foundations  of  the  judicial  system  of  Connecti- 
cut, nor  that  \'ou  have  exercised  a  hajipy  intluencc  in  adorning  that 
system  with  various  learning,  and  in  bringing  it  to  its  present 
matured  condition. 

^^'e  tender  vou  our  best  wishes  that  the  residue  of  your  days 
may  be  as  happy  as  }our  life  has  been  heretofore  distinguished  and 
honorable. 

Per  order  of  the  Bar, 

Phineas  ]\Iiner,  Chainiiait. 
Geo.  C.  Woodrufl^,  Clerk  pro  feiii. 
Litchfield.  August  29th..  1834. 


140  I.ncirFlELD  COUNTY  I'.EXCII  AND  BAR 

The  followini^'  is  the  reply  made  l)y  the  Hon.  David  Dag^gett  to 
the  foregoino-  address. 

"To  the  members  of  the  Bar  of  Litchfield  of  the  Countv  of 
Litchfield: 

Gentlemen  : — 1  have  received  with  high  satisfaction  the  address 
signed  by  I'hineas  ]^Iiner  and  Georg-e  C.  WoodrutT,  Esquire;, 
your  Chairman  and  Secretary,  which  \ou  did  me  the  honor  to 
communicate  to  me  this  dav. 

In  taking-  leave  of  a  P>ar  so  distinguished,  by  the  illustrious 
names  inscribed  on  its  records,  it  is  impossible  that  I  should  not 
entertain  a  gTateful  recollection  of  the  memories  of  those  who  are 
now  awa\-  from  all  earthl\-  scenes,  and  also  cherish  a  lively  affec- 
tion and  resi)ect  for  those  who  now  occu])}-  with  such  honor  their 
places. 

If  mv  official  conduct  on  the  bench  deserves  the  commendation 
bestowed  upon  it.  nuich  of  it  is  justly  due  to  the  gentlemen  of  a 
Bar  ever  characterized  by  ability,  integ-rity,  industry  and  learning. 
Of  vour  courtesy  towards  me  and  your  gentlemanly  deportment 
towards  each  other  while  engaged  in  the  conflicts  of  the  Bar,  I 
cannot  speak  in  terms  sufficient!}-  expressive  of  the  feelings  of 
mv  heart.  Thcv  will  be  recollected  with  grateful  aft'ection.  How 
nmch  such  an  intercourse  between  the  Bar  and  the  bench  tends 
to  alleviate  the  l)urdens  of  the  judicial  station,  can  be  known  only 
bv  those  who  have  had  the  pleasure  to  vritness  it. 

I  prav  \-ou  to  accept  mv  fervent  wishes  for  the  prosperitv  and 
happiness  of  you  individually,  and  my  cordial  thanks  for  this  ex- 
pression of  vour  esteem  and  res]iect. 

David   Daggett. 
Litchfield,  August  28th.,  1834. 

A   true   c<i])\-.      Attest, 

\Vm.  P.  Burrall,  Clerk. 

COl'RT    Kxi'I'.XSKS. 
Tn  the  earlier  i)art  of  the  century  the  Judges  were  given  a  cer- 
tain sum  per  day  and  their  dinners. 

Among-  the  vouchers  of  the  past  the  following  bill  of  Court 
expenses  a])pears. 

The   State  of  Connecticut : 

To  Lsaac  Baldwin.  Dr. 
Su]>erior  Court,  February  Term,   1810. 
To  ninety  nine  dinners   for  the  Court  $40.50 

To  21  bottles  of  wine  at  los  35-50 

To  Brandy.  Sugar,  etc.,   ly  days  at  ^-f)  I--75 

To  pipes  and  tobacco  o^ 

To  Segars  -25 

'To  paper  —5 

$9^-75 


n 


GIDKOX    II.    WKl.Cll. 


HISTORICAL   NOTES  I4I 


THE  COUNTY  COURT. 


Prepared  by  the  late  Wm.  F.  Hurlbut,  Clerk. 

The  first  Court  organization  in  Litchfield  County  was  the  County 
Court,  and  for  several  years  it  was  the  principal  trial  court, — hav- 
ing- criminal  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  except  those  piuiishable  by 
death,  or  imprisonment  in  the  State  Prison  for  life. — and  civil  juris- 
diction in  law  and  equity  where  the  matter  in  demand  did  not  ex- 
ceed three  hundred  and  thirty-five  dollars,  but  a  right  of  appeal  to 
the  Superior  Court  existed,  in  cases  where  the  ad  daiiiiiuiii  exceeded 
two  hundred  dollars,  or  the  title  to  land  or  right  of  way  was  in 
f|uestion,  also  raising-  or  obstructing-  the  water  of  any  stream,  river, 
creek  or  arm  of  the  sea  by  erection  of  a  dam,  etc.,  which  gave 
litigants  the  power  to  prevent  a  determination  of  causes  by  the 
County  Court,  and  which  the  defeated  parties  availed  themselves 
of  to  such  an  extent  that  most  cases  passed  through  both  courts 
with  a  trial  of  facts  in  each,  with  the  result  that  public  oi)inion  con- 
sidered the  County  Court  of  but  little  practical  value.  Therefore 
the  legislature  of  1855,  abolished  it  and  transferred  all  causes  there- 
in ])ending-  to  the  docket  of  the  Superior  Court,  causing  that  Court 
to  be  loaded  with  such  a  mass  of  business  that  it  was  im])ossible 
for  a  case  to  be  tried  within  two  years  after  being-  broug-ht.  This 
cong-estion  of  the  docket  of  the  Superior  Court  coupled  with  the 
inconvenience  of  travel  to  Litchfield  (then  the  only  County  Seat) 
caused  the  org-anization  in  1872  of  the  District  Court  for  the  First 
Judicial  District,  the  district  being-  composed  of  the  towns  of  Rark- 
hamsted,  Bridgewater,  Canaan,  Colebrook,  Cornwall.  Kent,  Xew 
Hartford,  Xew  r^lilford,  Norfolk,  North  Canaan,  Salisbury.  Sharon. 
^^'ashing-ton  and  Winchester.  This  Court  continued  to  exist  until 
1883  when  the  remainder  of  the  County  desirous  of  enjoying-  the 
privilege  afiforded  b\-  it.  the  name  was  changed  to  the  Court  of 
Con-imon  Pleas  and  its  jurisdiction  extended  to  the  entire  Cotnitv 
with  sessions  holden  at  Litchfield  in  addition  to  Winchester.  New 
Milford  and  Canaan. 

This  was  ])ractically  a  revival  of  the  old  County  Court  with 
civil  powers  enlarged  to  cover  causes  demanding  one  thousand  dol- 
lars damages  but  with  no  right  of  appeal  to  the  Superior  Court 
nor  any  criminal  jurisdiction. 

The  Court  of  Common  Pleas  has  been  a  popular  court  transact- 
ing a  large  majority  of  the  litigation  of  the  County  with  less  ex- 
pense to  the  State  and  to  parties  than  the  same  could  have  been  done 
by  the  Superior  Court. 


142  i.i'rcFTi'iKi.D  cor.vTv  i;Kxctt  axd  har 

jri)C,i:S    ni'    Till-:    COUNTY    COL'KT. 

William  Preston              '^75^-^5]  Ansel  Sterling".                1838-1839 

Woodbury  Sharon 

John  Williams,                1754-1773  Calvin  llntler.                  1839-1840 

Sharon  l'l\ni()Uth 

Oliver  \\'olcott,               ^/Jo'^/^^^  Ansel  Sterling,                1840-1842 

Litchfield  Sharon 

Daniel  Sherman,             1786-1791  William  M.  Burrall,       1842- 1844 

\\'(i()(ll)ur\-  Canaan 

Joshua   I'ortcr.                1791-1808  Abijah   Catlin,                 1844-1846 

Salisbury  Harwinton 

Aaron   Austin,'               1808-1816  Elisha  S.  Abernethy,     1846-1847 

Xew  Hartford  Litchfield 

Augustus  Lettibone       1816-1831  I  lollirook  Curtiss.          1847-1849 

X(  irf  oik  \\'aterto\vn 

David  S.   Txtardmau,      1831-1836  i  liram  (loodwin,             1849-1850 

Xew  Milford  Barkhamsted 

AA'illiam  M.   L.urrall.      1836-183S  Charles   B.    Phelps,        1850-1851 

Canaan  \\'oodbury 

Hiram  Goodwin,  1851-1856 
Barkhamsted 

jfSTicKs  OF  Tiri'    nroKr:\r. 

John   ?\[iner,                    1704-1716  John  Sherman,               ij2yiy2S 

Woodbury  Woodbury 

John   Sherman,                1708-1714  Joseph  Miner,                  1725-1739 

A\'oodl)ury  Woodbury 

William  Preston,  1740-175 1 
W(  lodbury 

Tirt;    l'Oi,I,OWlXG    IX  I.ITCII  I'lia.l)    corxTv. 

Thomas  Chii)man,          1/51-1753  Increase   Abiseley,          I755-I7"^^ 

Salisbury  Woodbury 

John   Williams.                I75I-I75I  i^'ger  Sherman,              1759-1762 

Sharon  Xew  Milford 

Sanmel   Canfield,             175 1-1754  Daniel    Sherman,             1761-1786 

Xew  Milford  A\'o(^dbury 

Lbeiiezer   Alarsh,             1751-1772  Bushnell    Bostwick.        1762-1776 

Litchfield                 '  Xew  Milford 

Josei)h    r.ird.                    1753-1754  Joshua  I'orter.                 1772-17(^1 

Salisbury  Salisbury 

Xoah  Hinmau.               1754-1759  Samuel  Canfield,            1777-1790 

\\'oodbury  Xew  jMilford 

Klisha   Sheldon,               1754-1759  Tedediah    Strong.             1780-1791 

Litchfield                 ^         '  '            Litchfield 


WILLIAM    F.    IILKLBUT 


JnSTORICAL   NOTES  143 

Hcman    Swift,  1786-1802      lUrdseye  Norton,  1809-1812 

Cornwall  Goshen 

AarcMi  Austin,  1790-1808      Augustus   Pettibone.     1812-1816 

Xew  Hartford  Norfolk 

Nathan  Hale.  1791-1809      Uriel  Holmes,  i8[4-i8i7 

Canaan  Litchfield 

David  Smith,  1791-1814      Moses  Lyman,  Jr..        i8[5-i8i7 

Plymouth  Goshen 

Daniel  X.  Prinsmade,  i8o2-t8t8     Oliver    Purnham.  1816-1818 

Washington  Cornwall 

Judson  Canfield,  1808-18 15  Cyrus  Swan,  1817-1819 

Sharon  Sharon 

Martin   Strong-,  1819-1820 

Salisbury 

ASSOCIATl':    JI'DGES. 

Martin   Strong,  1820-1829      ^[orris  W'odruff,  1829-1836 

Salisbury  Litchfield 

lohn  Welch,     '  1820-1829      Hugh  P.  Welch.  1836-1838 

Litchfield  Litchfield 

William  M.  Purrall,       1829-1836 
Canaan 

The  Judges  of  the  District  Court  were  Roland  Hitchcock,  two 
years:  Tared  P..  Foster,  three  years ;  Florimond  D.  Fyler,  four  years 
and  Donald  j.  Warner,  two  years;  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
Donald  1.  \Varner.  six  years;  Alberto  T.  Roraback.  four  years; 
Arthur  I).  Warner,  three  and  one  half  years:  Alberto  T.  Roraback. 
five  nil  nulls  i  when  he  was  appointed  to  the  Superior  Court  bench) 
and  Gideon  II.  Welch  now  (1907)  holding-  the  office. 

The  Clerks  have  been  of  the  County  Court 
Isaac  P)aldwin,  1751-1703  Frederick  Wolcott,  i7<)3-i83r) 

( )f  the  l)istrict  Court  and  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
Win.  F.  llurlbui,  twenty-two  years  Walter  S.  Judd,  two  years 

W  heaton  F.  Dowd,  from  1901 


junr.r;  prkstox  s  :\roNr]\ii-:NT  ix  avoodtu-ry 


^mis 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  145 

NOTED  TRIALS. 

Altlioii.qh  the  Courts  are  organized  to  remedy  private  wrongs 
and  as  such  their  proceedings  are  not  matters  of  general  history,  yet 
these  are  sometimes  of  such  a  pubHc  nature  and  relate  so  closely 
to  the  general  weal  and  welfare  that  they  are  properly  a  part  ci 
Court  history,  while  of  course  Criminal  trials  are  public  property. 
Some  of  these  have  passed  through  the  Courts  of  highest  adjudica- 
tion and  are  very  important. 

The  Attorney  in  preparing  his  brief  in  an  action  cannot  have 
avoided  noticing-  how  often  his  references  (|uote  from  some  Litch- 
field County  decision,  especially  in  the  earlier  cases. 

Those  earlier  Blackstones  of  our  jurisprudence.  Reeve,  Gould,. 
Church  and   Seymour  laid  their  work  on  the  deep  foundations  of 
tile  i)hi]oso])hy  and  truths  of  natural  justice  and  common  sense. 

The  early  j^art  of  our  records  are  of  appeals  from  the  County 
Court,  motions  for  new  trials,  foreclosures,  and  a  good  many  cases 
of  Insolvency  ])roceedings  and  cases  of  equitable  nature.  Yery  few 
trials  of  fact  occur;  the  judgments  were  rendered  mostly  after  de- 
cisions u])oii  demurrers,  pleas  in  aliatement  and  such  preliminary 
pleadings,  upon  the  determination  of  which  we  now  have  a  right 
to  answer  over,  and  have  a  trial  on  tlie  facts. 

In  the  L'riminal  prosecutions,  if  the  accused  by  any  chance  was 
accfuitted  he  was  discharged  by  paxing  the  costs  of  his  trial, 
and  till  1S35  the  sentences  of  impris(Miment  were  made  to  Newgate, 
now  known  as  the  Copper  mines  in  Simsbury. 

A\'e  ap])end  herewith  a  few  of  the  memorable  trials,  and  have 
proljal)ly  omitted  others  of  ec|uall\-  as  valuable  and  important  signifi- 
cance.    The  abstracts  arc  necessarily  very  brief  and  condensed. 

The  first  recorded  case  upon  tlic  books  of  the  Superior  Court 
is  that  of 

Abner    Wheeler,   of    lletlilem 

^•s. 

Joshua  Henshaw.  of  .\ew  Hartford. 

In  which  the  plaintifi'  recovered  $C)42.75  damages  and  costs  taxed 
at  $49.86. 

The  first  divorce  granted  was  Lucy  Mix  of  Salislniry  against 
Thomas  ^lix. 

I'hese  mixings  and  unmixings  ha\e  formed  a  large  per  cent,  of 
the  judgments  during  the  centiu"v. 

THE    SKLI.l'X'K-OSBORX    IMATTKR. 

One  of  the  most  imj^ortant  trials  and  probabl\  one  that  in  its 
general  results  afi:'ected  the  State,  especially  the  political  part  of  it 
more  than  any  other  that  has  ever  occurred  in  the  State,  was  the 
Selleck-Osborn  trial  1806-1807. 

Benjamin  Talmadge.  Esq.,  was  a  Colonel  in  the  Revolution  and 
at  the  close  of  hostilities  settled  in  Litchfield  where  he  was  a  verv 


146  ijtchfie;i.d  county  benxh  and  bar 

prominent  citizen  and  for  many  years  a  member  of  Congress. 
Frederick  \\'olcott,  wlio  for  more  than  forty  years  was  the  cleri<  of 
the  County  and  Superior  Courts,  brought  a  suit  against  one  William 
Hart  of  Saybrook  and  at  the  August  Term  of  this  cuurt  1805  re- 
covered $2,205.00  damages.  The  case  was  taken  to  the  Supreme 
Court  and  affirmed.  Execution  was  issued  and  paid  in  full  in  1806. 
Sellcck  ( )sborn  and  Timothy  Ashley  were  then  publishing  a 
ne\vsi)aper  in  Litchfield  called  the  Witness  and  made  comments  upon 
the  judgment  reflecting  severely  u]jon  the  integrity  of  the  Court. 

Whereupon  the  Superior  Court  prosecuted  them  as  follows : 
"James  Gould,  Esq.,  Attorney  for  the  State  for  the  County  of 
Litchfield  specially  appointed  by  this  Court  in  this  behalf  filed  an 
information  before  this  Court,  therein  representing  that  Selleck 
Osborn  and  Timothy  Ashley  both  now  resident  in  Litchfield  in 
County  intending  to  bring  the  Superior  Court  of  judicature  of  this 
State  into  disrepute  and  contempt  and  especially  to  induce  a  belief 
among  the  good  people  of  this  State  that  said  Court  in  proceeding 
to  and  rendering  judgment  in  a  certain  cause  in  which  Benjamin 
Talmadge  and  Frederick  Wolcott,  Esquires  were  plaintififs  and 
William  Hart,  Esq.,  was  defendant,  and  that  the  jury  who  attended 
said  Court  in  finding  a  verdict  in  said  cause  were  influenced  by  par- 
tial, dishonest  and  corrupt  motives,  did  at  Litchfield  aforesaid  on 
the  4th  day  of  Septemlx'r  1805  with  force  and  arms  most  unjustlv 
wickedly  and  maliciously  print  and  publish  and  cause  to  be  printed 
and  published  of  and  concerning  said  Coiu't  and  jury  and  of  and 
concerning  the  proceedings  in  said  catisc  in  a  publick  newspaper 
called  the  Witness  a  certain  false  and  scandalous  libel  purporting  to 
be  a  statement  or  report  of  the  aforesaid  action  of  the  evidence  ad- 
duced therein  and  of  the  proceedings  therein  had  which  said  infor- 
mation is  as  on  file." 

The  <lefeiidants  jjlead  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  to  which 
the  attorney  demurred  and  the  Court  decided  that  it  had  jm-isdiction. 
It  then  went  to  the  Court  for  trial  on  their  i)lea  of  not  guilty.  They 
were  found  guilty  and  fined  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  each. 
Osborn  in  liis  statement  of  the  numerous  trials  says  that  this  one 
cost  him  $605.98.  The  libel  suit  of  Julius  Deming  against  him 
$346.46  and  for  slandering  Thomas  Colier  he  paid  $522.00. 

Osborn  and  Ashley  were  also  fined  in  the  County  Court  one 
liundred  dollars  for  libelling  Julius  Deming  a  prominent  merchant 
of  Litchfield.  Mr.  Ashley  paid  his  part  but  Mr.  Osborn  would  not 
pay  and  was  taken  to  jail.  This  aroused  the  Jefifersonians  all  over 
the  County  and  State,  they  calling  it  a  i)olitical  martyrdom  and  on 
the  6th  of  August  1806,  they  gave  him  a  great  ovation  forming  a 
grand  procession  with  cavalry  and  militar\-  jxirade  passing  by  the 
jail  where  he  was  confined  and  saluting  him  with  great  honors.  A 
part  of  the  celebration  was  an  address  delivered  in  the  meeting  house 
bv  Jose|)h  L.  Smith,  then  a  young  lawyer  of  Litchfield.     He  made 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  I47 

remarks  rcrtectiny  upon  the  Superiur  Court.  consequentl\  in  due 
course  of  time  the  State's  Attorney,  Urial  Hohnes,  Esq..  issued  an 
information  ao"ainst  him  for  utterine:  "the  followino-  false,  mahcious. 
scandalous  and  defamatory  words,  viz:  'The  Courts  of  justice 
(meaning"  the  aforesaid  Cottrts  of  justice  in  this  State)  have  re- 
garded the  face  of  man  in  judgment.  If  the  Republicans  shall  re- 
take the  pro|)ert\'  which  the  Federal  Courts  (meaning  the  aforesaid 
Courts  .  magistrates,  judges  and  justices  of  this  State)  have  taken 
from  them  (meaning  the  said  Rei)ublicans )  it  will  be  but  a  poor 
apology  for  the  Federalists  that  they  obtained  it  by  false  witnesses 
perjured  judges  and  packed  juries."  Also  "( )sboi'n  is  imprisoned 
for  publishing  that  of  a  Federal  justice  whicli  is  true  of  every 
Federal  justice  in  the  State." 

Smith  hrst  plead  not  guiltv.  then  the  Court  allowed  him  to 
change  his  plea  to  a  demurrer.  The  Coiu"t  found  the  information 
sufficient  and  fined  Smith  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  and  costs, 
one  hundred  and  twent\-  three  dollars  and  sixty  four  cents. 

'J'he  clerk  adds  to  the  record,  "The  delincpiint  ^vas  delivered  to 
the  custod\-  of  the  Sherifif  of  said  County." 

Snfith's  connection  widi  the  Court  was  not  altogether  agreeable 
after  that,  but  he  was  soon  appninted  Major  in  the  United  States 
Army  and  was  a  Colonel  in  the  War  of  18 12  after  which  he  was 
United  States  Judge  in  Florida.  He  was  the  ancestor  of  the  con- 
federate General  E.  Kirby  Smith. 

BLASPHEMY. 

At  the  August  Term  of  the  Court  in  1800  \\  illiam  Lea\'enworth, 
Jr.,  was  informed  against  for  blasi)hemv  in  the  town  of  Plymotith. 
The  information  stated  "Who  did  in  the  i)resence  and  hearing  of 
sundry  of  the  good  i)eo])le  of  the  State  then  and  there  assembled, 
blaspheme  the  name  of  God  the  Father  and  of  the  Hol\-  Ghost,  au'l 
deny  and  re])roach  the  true  God  and  His  government  of  the  world 
by  wickedly  and  blasphemously  uttering  and  speaking  the  words 
following,  viz  :  '1  am  the  Holy  Ghost  and  here  is  the  Holy  Ghost,'  he 
the  said  William  speaking  of  himself  and  meaning  that  he,  said 
William  was  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  accused  was  arrested,  brought  before  the  Court  and  pleafl 
not  guilty,  and  after  a  trial  was  acciuitted  by  the  jury  and  the  Clerk 
adds,  "The  said  William  was  discharged  by  order  of  Court  without 
the  payment  of  costs.'' 

This  was  a  new  departure,  it  having  been  customary  for  the 
prisoner  to  be  obliged  to  pay  the  costs  whether  convicted  or  ac- 
quitted. 

The  following  remarkable  proceeding  appears  ui)un  the  record 
of  our  Courts,  but  the  account  herein  given  is  from  (icn.  Sedg- 
wick's Historv  of  Sharon. 


148  UTCIIFIKLD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

A  WRONG  VKRDICT  STANDS. 

At  a  regimental  training  in  Sharon  on  the  20th  day  of  Sept., 
A.  J).  1805  an  altercation  occurred  between  Zenas  Beebe  of  Sharon 
and  Aner  Ives  of  Kent  which  was  consummated  by  the  stabbing  of 
Ives  by  Eeebe  with  a  bayonet,  inflicting  a  mortal  wound  of  which 
he  died  at  the  end  of  a  week.  There  were  mitigating  circumstances 
in  the  case  which  relieved  Beebe  from  the  charge  of  wilful  murder, 
])ut  it  was  a  clear  case  of  manslaughter.  By  a  singular  blunder  of 
the  foreman  of  the  jury  he  was  pronounced  not  guilty  of  any  of- 
fense. The  jury  had  agreed  upon  the  verdict  to  be  rendered  to  he 
"not  guilty  of  nnu'der,  but  guilty  of  manslaughter."  The  foreman 
rendered  the  first  part  of  the  verdict  but  stopped  there.  The  sub- 
sequent proceedings  in  the  matter  are  copied  from  the  records  of  the 
Court. 

"After  the  verdict  was  rendered  the.  foreman  informed  the  Court 
that  the  verdict  which  the  jury  had  intended  to  return  and  had 
agreed  on  was — that  the  said  Beebe  was  not  guilty  of  murder,  but 
by  mistake  he  had  omitted  to  return  and  state  the  whole  finding  of 
the  jury,  and  desired  to  be  directed  by  the  Court  whether  the  verdict 
and  the  whole  finding  of  the  jury  as  agreed  u]M)n  by  theni,  and  as  he 
designed  at  first  to  have  stated  tlie  same,  would  then  be  made  and 
returned. 

(  )n  consideration  it  was  adjudged  hy  the  court  that  the  verdict 
of  the  jury  as  returned  and  recorded  l)y  tlicm  could  not  be  ex- 
plained or  altered." 

lieebe  was  defended  by  two  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  State 
Nathaniel  Smith  of  Woodbury  and  David  Daggett  of  New  Haven. 

At  the  Term  of  the  Superior  Court  holden  February,  A.  D.  1820, 
Beehe  was  tried  for  an  assault  with  intent  to  kill  Amasa  Maxam 
and  found  guilty.  He  was  sentenced  to  confinement  in  the  Old 
Newgate  prison  for  two  years  but  died  before  the  expiration  of  his 
sentence. 

.\  SINCUL.XR  INFORM  ATloV  FOR  SI.AXDRR. 

In  18 [4,  Itlisha  vSterling,  Esq..  tlien  Attorney  for  the  State  for 
the  County  of  Litchfield  presented  to  the  Court  his  information 
against  a  very  prominent  man  of  the  County  who  was  at  that  time 
Brigadier  General  of  the  State  Militia. 

The  complaint  was  for  lihel  u])on  liis  deceased  father-in-law 
made  by  the  General  in  tlie  form  of  a  "Funeral  Order"  and  sent 
to  one  of  the  inferior  officers  of  his  regiment  directing  him  to  con- 
duct the  funeral.  The  order  is  too  wicked  and  vulgar  to  be  pub- 
lislied  entire  but  a  few  extracts  from  it  will  show  its  general  pur- 
port. 

A     FlXI'.RAl.    0R1)I:R. 

T  have  this  (la\    been   informed  that  old  is  dead, 

and    1  heiuir  out  of  liealtli   cannot  attend  tlie   funeral.     T   therefore 


HISTORICAL  XOTES  1 49 

give  you  this  order  and  empower  you  to  conduct  it  in  the  follo\vin<^ 
order  and  I  will  pay  the  cxipensc.  First  get  a  coffin  made  of 
Pepperidge  Plank  three  inches  thick  and  duftail  it  strong  together 
with  large  Iron  Spikes.  Hoop  it  thick  with  Bars  of  Iron,  make  a 
winding  sheet  with  sheet  iron,  hraze  it  well  Top  and  Bottom,  make 
a  Aluffler  with  two  hundred  pounds  of  German  Steel.  Place  a 
large  Iron  Screw  on  the  top  of  his  head  extending  through  the  Jaws 
so  that  the  old  fellow  cannot  open  his  mouth,  next  place  on 

a  nnile  dressed  in  Regimentals  with  old  sword  and 
Epaulette  which  he  wore  at  the  time  the  British  invaded  Xew  York, 
when  he  run  and  left  his  men  twenty  rods  behind 

Raise  four  red  or  crimson  Flags,  place  (certain  neighbors)  as 
pall  bearers  to  blow  Rams  Horns,  dress  (other  neighbors)  in  Indian 
Stockings  and  Wampum  and  make  them  carry  around  W'inkum  or 
Cvder  Brandv  in  large  iron  kettles  to  treat  the  procession,  start  Ijy 
the  shouting  of  Rams  Horns  until  the  walls  fall  in  (  ) 

as  they  did  in  Jericho.     Draw  Him  to  ,  then  blast 

a  grave  into  a  solid  rock  ten  feet  deep,  put  him  in  head  downwards, 
place  bars  of  iron  thick  across  the  grave,  take  a  sledge,  drive  in 
stones,  cement  them  with  Plaster  of  Paris,  so  that  the  old  Devil 
cannot  get  out.  as  he  would  make  Quarrells  and  Disturbance  until 
the  Dav  of  ludgment.     Go  to  and  get  one  hundred  and 

fiftv  barrells  of  tar  or  i)itch  and  twenty  barrells  of  brimstone  and 
burn  around  the  dcjor  to  keep  off  the  devils  until  you  perform  this 
my  (jrder 

The  information  concludes  as  follows: — 

"AH  of  which  was  false,  willful  and  malitious  and  done  to  blacken 
the  memorv  of  the  said  deceased  and  cast  a  stigma  on  his  memory 
and  on  all  others  connected  with  him  and  excite  his  cliildren  to  a 
breach  of  the  peace  and  expose  them  to  the  hatred  and  contempt 
of  the  good  people  of  this  State  :  all  which  wrongdoings  of  the  said 
are  against  the  peace  and  dignity  of  this  State  contrar\- 
to  law  and  a  higli  crime  and  misdemeanor  and  of  evil  example  to 
others  in  like  manner  to  off'end.  Said  attorney  therefore  prays  the 
advice  of  the  Honorable  C<nu-t  in  the  premises. 

Elisha   Sterling."" 

The  indorsement  is  as  folhnvs: — 

"James  Gould  and  Xoali  I'..  Benedict  assigned  as  counsel  for 
the  delinquint.  Plea  not  guilty.  On  the  jury  for  trial.  The  de- 
linquint  changing,  pleads  guilty. 

The  Court  adjudge  that  (lelin(|uint  is  guilty  and  that  he  jjay  a 
fine  of  $75  into  the  treasury  of  this  State  and  the  costs  of  thi= 
prosecution  and  stand  committed  until  judgment  be  complied  with. 

J.  W.  H.,  Clerk  pro  tem."' 

UAI'.KLLO  TRIAL. 

In  the  spring  of  1835  a  most  horrible  murder  was  committed 
in  Xew  Preston.     A  voung  lad  of  twelve  years  of  age,  son  of  Mr. 


150  I.ITCJU'IKLD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

Ferris  Beardslcy.  was  brutally  murdered  by  a  wandering  fellow,  a 
Portug-uese  by  birth,  for  some  fancied  insult,  claiming-  that  the  boy 
stepped  on  his  toes.  The  trial  commenced  in  August  1835  before 
Judges  Waite  and  Williams.  The  i^rosecuting  attorney  for  the 
State  was  Leman  Church  assisted  by  George  C.  Woodrutf.  Esq., 
and  the  Cnurt  api)()inted  Truman  Smith  and  ( ).  S.  Seymour  for  the 
prisoner,  'i'he  trial  lasted  several  days  and  on  the  eig"hteenth  of 
August  1835  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  not  guilty  by  reason  of 
insanity.  The  prisoner  was  committed  to  jail  for  safe  keeping  and 
remained  there  a  number  of  years  but  was  afterwards  committed 
to  State  Prison  for  safe  keeping.  He  became  a  raving  maniac 
and  died  in  prison  only  a  few  years  since.  It  was  at  that  time  a 
noted  case  and  one  of  the  earliest  ones,  now  so  common,  of  offering 
expert  evidence  on  insanity. 

The  proceedings  of  the  trial  were  iiublished  in  pamphlet  form. 

LKNNKT    WARD    :\IUI<DKK. 

On  the  23rd  of  Xovember,  1846,  Bennet  Ward  went  into  a  store 
ke|)t  l)y  A\'.  P>.  Lounsbury,  he  was  somewhat  intoxicated,  became 
nois}-  and  violent,  threatened  to  \\-hip  several  persons  who  were  in 
the  store,  and  began  to  throw  hre  among  the  dry  goods  that  were 
disposed  about  the  store.  Among  those  present  was  George  W, 
Smith.  A\'ard  finally  proposed  to  whip  him,  and  Smith  seized  a  stick 
of  wood  from  the  wood  box,  and  struck  him  over  the  left  side  of  the 
bead,  causing  a  fracture  in  the  skull  five  inches  in  length.  He 
then  kicked  him  out  of  the  store  and  he  fell  upon  the  stoop.  He 
got  up  however  and  wanted  to  fight,  but  the  door  was  shut  upon 
him.  He  then  went  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  to  an  out  house  of 
David  J.  Stiles  and  staid  there  two  nights,  when  he  went  into  Mr. 
Stiles'  liouse.  and  soon  became  insensible.  Tn  this  condition  he  re- 
remained  till  his  death,  which  occurred  fifty-six  hours  after  the 
blow  was  received.  A  post-mortem  examination  showed  there  was 
concussion  and  compression  of  the  l)rain,  besides  a  chronic  infiamma- 
tion  resulting  from  an  old  injury.  Smith  was  arraigned  for  nmrder, 
February  Term  1847.  Hon.  John  H.  Hubbard,  State's  Attorney 
and  Hon.  Charles  P.  Phelps,  appeared  for  the  State  and  Hons. 
Leman  Church.  G.  H.  Hollister  and  William  Cothren  appeared  for 
the  accused.  After  an  interesting  trial.  Smith  was  accpiitted,  on 
the  ground  that  he  acted  in  self  defence. 

I.lCirS    11.    I'OO'P    -MlUDi'.R. 

On  the  morning  of  .March  4th.,  1856.  Lucius  H.  Foote,  a  tavern- 
er  of  Woodburv,  was  found  brutally  nnn-dered,  under  the  horse  sheds 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  the  center  of  the  town,  and  his  whole 
body  frozen  stiff',  showing  that  he  had  been  killed  the  evening  be- 
fore. Circumstances  strongly  pointed  to  Edward  E.  Bradley,  as 
being  the  perjietrator  of  the  crime.  He  was  arrested  on  this  sus- 
piciou,  and  after  a  hearing  before  Justice  lUill,  bound  over,  without 


WILLIAM    COTHRDN. 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  15I 

bail  to  the  next  Superior  Court  to  be  held  at  Litchfield.  A  Grand 
Jury  was  summoned,  and  a  true  bill  for  the  crime  of  murder  was 
found.  The  trial  of  the  accused  on  the  indictment  commenced  at 
Litchfield  on  the  14th.,  of  April,  before  Judges  William  L.  Storrs 
and  Origen  S.  Seymour  and  a  Jury,  Hon.  Gideon  Hall,  State's  At- 
torney, Hon.  Charles  B.  Phelps  and  William  Cothren,  Esq.  ap- 
peared for  the  State,  and  Hon.  Charles  Chapman  of  Hartford, 
Gideon  H.  Hollister  and  Henry  B.  Graves,  Esqrs.  appeared  for 
the  prisoner.  Not  only  very  nice  questions  of  circumstial  evidence, 
but  other  intricate  questions  of  law,  were  involved  in  the  case,  and 
the  trial  excited  a  more  general  interest  than  any  case  which  has 
been  tried  in  this  county.  On  the  tenth  day  of  the  trial  the  presid- 
ing Judge  charged  the  jury,  and  on  the  eleventh  day,  they  having 
failed  to  agree  on  a  verdict,  after  having  been  sent  out  for  several 
times,  the  papers  were  taken  back,  the  jury  discharged,  and  the 
prisoner  remanded  to  jail.  The  jury  stood  five  for  conviction  of 
murder  in  the  second  degree  and  seven  for  acquittal. 

At  the  September  term  of  the  Court  the  case  came  on  again  for 
trial.  It  was  commenced  October  3rd.,  1856  before  Hon.  David  C. 
Sanford  and  Hon.  John  D.  Park,  presiding  Judges  with  a  jury. 
After  a  careful  and  laborious  trial  for  twelve  days,  the  jury  again 
disagreed  and  were  discharged. 

On  the  14th  of  April,  1857  he  was  again  arrainged  for  trial  be- 
fore a  jury  with  Hon.  William  W.  Ellsworth  and  Hon.  Thomas  B. 
Butler  as  presiding  Judges,  and  after  a  trial  of  fourteen  days  the 
jury  again  disagreed.  Soon  after  this  result  the  State's  Attorney 
entered  a  nolle  prosequi  and  the  accused  was  discharged.  Air. 
Cothren  published  a  complete  re^xirt  of  the  trial. 

MATTHEW  ^MORRIS  MURDER. 

On  the  17th  of  July,  1861,  W^oodbury  was  again  startled  by  the 
announcement  that  another  murder  had  been  committed  there. 
Matthew  M.  Morris  a  very  respectable  citizen  became  engaged  in 
a  quarrel  with  one  Charles  Fox,  was  stabbed  by  Fox  and  the  knife 
at  the  last  thrust,  entirely  severed  the  main  artery  under  the  collar 
bone  on  the  right  side,  called  by  the  doctors  the  vena  cava.  Fox 
immediately  hid  his  knife  in  the  corner  of  the  yard  where  it  was  found 
the  next  morning,  almost  covered  with  blood.  Fox  took  his  scythe 
and  started  for  Roxbury,  but  was  detained  by  a  neighbor  till  Sherifif 
Minor  arrested  him. 

After  an  inquest.  Fox  was  bound  over  for  trial  to  the  September 
term  of  the  Superior  Court,  1861.  Judge  Ellsworth  presided  over 
that  Court.  Gen.  Charles  F.  Sedgwick  and  Wm.  Cothren,  ap- 
peared for  the  State,  and  Gideon  H.  Hollister  and  Henry  B.  Graves, 
Esqrs.,  for  the  defence.  After  the  evidence  on  both  sides  had  been 
introduced  the  judge  called  all  the  counsel  to  the  bench,  and  told 
them  that  in  his  judgment  the  crime  amounted  to  manslaughter  and 
no  more ;  and  that  if  it  pleased  them  to  agree  to  that  view  and 


15^  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

would  waive  argument,  he  would  immediately  so  charge  the  jury. 
The  counsel  cheerfully  acceded  to  the  suggestion  of  the  distinguished 
judge,  who  immediately  charged  tiie  jury  in  accordance  with  his 
views.  The  jury  retired,  and  in  a  few  minutes  returned  with  a  ver- 
dict of  manslaughter,  and  Fox  was  sentenced  to  ten  years  imprison- 
ment in  the  Connecticut  State  Prison. 

DKAKELV   aiURDER. 

Again  Woodbury  was  the  scene  of  a  sad  murder.  On  the  night 
of  August  loth..  1886  Robert  Drakely  shot  his  wife  through  the 
heart  after  she  had  retired  for  the  night.  He  was  a  young  man. 
not  twenty  years  old  and  had  been  married  only  a  few  weeks  and 
was,  as  he  claimed,  jealous  of  his  wife  for  the  attentions  she  be- 
stowed on  a  small  child  that  boarded  with  them.  He  was  of  a 
good  old  family  of  very  respectable  people  but  had  become  disso- 
lute and  dissipated  and  committed  the  act  while  in  a  drunken  frenzy. 
He  was  bound  over  to  the  Superior  Court  by  Justice  Skelly  and 
taken  to  the  jail  at  Litchfield.  At  the  April  term.  1887  of  the 
Court  the  Grand  Jury  indicted  him  for  murder  in  the  second  de- 
gree. In  September,  1887  he  was  arraigned  and  plead  not  guilty. 
He  was  tried  before  Hon.  David  Torrance  and  a  jury.  The  prose- 
cution was  conducted  by  Hon.  James  Huntington,  State's  Attorney 
and  Artliur  D.  Warner,  Esq.;  the  defense  l\v  Henry  B.  Graves  and 
A\'illiam  Cothren,  Esq.  The  defense  was  that  the  accused  from 
various  reasons  was  not  mentallv  or  mortally  responsible  for  his  acts. 
After  an  exhaustive  trial  and  the  charge  of  Judge  Torrance  the  jury 
retired  and  in  about  ten  minutes  returned  with  a  verdict  of  guilty. 
He  was  sentenced  to  State  Prison  for  life  and  died  a  few  \ears 
after  commitment. 

BERNICE  WHITE,  MURDER. 

In  tile  early  part  of  1850  the  people  of  Colebrook  and  vicinity 
were  startled  by  the  re])ort  that  Bernice  White,  an  elderly  gentleman 
living  near  Colebrook  River,  had  been  murdered.  In  a  short  time 
four  men  were  arrested  for  the  deed,  named  William  Calhoun, 
Lorenzo  T.  Cobb,  Benjamin  Balcomb  and  Henry  Alennasseh,  the 
latter  a  half  breed  Indian.  After  the  preliminary  hearing  they 
were  Ijound  over  for  trial  to  the  Superior  Court  at  Litchfield.  A 
Grand  Jur\-  found  a  true  bill  against  eacii  of  them  and  they  were 
brouglit  to  trial  at  the  August  Term  1850.  There  was  so  great  a 
crowd  of  witnesses  and  interested  spectators  that  the  Court  was 
obliged  to  adjourn  to  the  Congregational  Church  to  hold  the  trial. 
Two  Judges  presided.  Chief  Justice  Church  and  Judge  Storrs. 
Calhoun  and  llalcomb  being  minors,  Charles  Chapman,  Esq.,  of 
Hartford  was  appointed  guardian  ad-Htem  of  Calhoun  and  Origen 
S.  Seymour  for  Balcomb.  Upon  their  arraignment  Balcomb 
])lead  guilty  and  the  rest  not  guilty  of  murder  in  the  first  degree. 


HENRY  B.  GRAVES 


HISTORICAL  XOTES  153 

After  a  lonp-  trial  Cal'ionn  and  Alannasseh  were  found  s^uiltv  and 
Cobb  was  acquitted.  The  guilty  ones  were  sentenced  to  be  hung' 
on  the  second  Friday  of  July,  1851.  One  of  them,  Cobb,  died  in 
jail  and  the  other  three  finally  had  their  sentences  changed  to  im- 
prisonment in  State  Prison  for  life.  After  serving  there  some 
years  Balcomb  died  in  prison  and  Calhoun  and  Mennasseh  were  par- 
doned out,  it  having  been  fairly  proved  that  they  had  no  hand  in  the 
actual  commission  of  the  deed  but  were  only  accessories  after  the 
fact.  Calhoun  died  somewhere  in  the  west  and  Alennasseh  died  in 
the  Farmington  town  house.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  last  of  the 
Tunxis  Indians. 

WILLIAM  II.  GRLLX  TRIAL. 

The  trial  of  the  Rev.  William  H.  Green  of  Cornwall  for  murder 
excited  a  very  general  interest. 

In  1865  Air.  Green  resided  in  Centerville.  N.  Y.,  in  the  character 
of  an  itinerant  Methodist  preacher,  and  about  that  time  he  married 
a  woman  with  whom  he  lived  several  months  occupying  with  her 
the  parsonage  of  the  parish  wherein  he  preached.  In  1866  he 
abandoned  this  wife  and  married  a  young  widow  who  had  a  small 
amount  of  property  amounting  to  some  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred 
dollars.  In  the  spring  of  1867  he  came  to  Connecticut  and  tooK 
the  stump  for  P.  T.  Barnum  who  was  then  running  for  Congress 
on  the  Re])ublican  ticket.  He  was  esteemed  a  very  powerful 
preacher  and  liis  political  arguments  were  eloquent  and  convincing, 
he  also  lectured  on  temperance  and  was  an  evangelist  and  held  re 
vival  meetings  in  dififerent  places.  After  a  time  he  joined  his  sec- 
ond wife's  brother  in  West  Cornwall  and  engaged  with  him  in  the 
general  country  store  business.  Mrs.  Green  was  in  feeble  health 
wdth  consumption  and  grew  rapidly  worse.  On  the  evening 
of  May  6,  1867  she  was  attacked  with  spasms  and  died  just  aftei 
midnight.  From  certain  suspicious  circumstances  and  subsequent 
conduct  of  Green,  suspicion  was  aroused  to  the  cause  of  her  death. 
About  the  middle  of  June  her  body  was  exhumed  and  the  stomach 
and  liver  sent  to  Prof.  Barker  of  Xew  Haven  for  examination  who 
found  traces  of  strychnine  in  those  organs.  Green  was  arrested  and 
sent  to  Litchfield  for  safe  keeping  without  a  mittimus  and  of  course 
w-as  not  locked  up.  While  under  keepers  here  his  brother-in-law 
called  upon  him  and  informed  him  of  the  result  of  the  analysis. 
Green  concluded  that  his  residence  at  the  jail  was  not  desirable  at 
least  on  his  part  and  made  his  departure  therefrom  unknown  to  the 
authorities  and  was  for  a  few  days  in  parts  unknown.  In  a  few 
days  he  reported  at  West  Cornwall  where  he  was  formally  arrested 
and  attempted  to  save  the  State  the  trouble  and  expense  of  three 
trials  by  cutting  his  throat  with  a  pocket  knife  in  which  he  w-as  not 
entirely  successful.  He  was  bound  over  to  the  Superior  Court  for 
trial  and  in  November  1867  w^as  tried  for  the  crime  and  convicted 


154  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  Bl^XCII  AXD  BAR 

of  murder  and  sentenced  to  be  hung  on  December  4th..  1868.  His 
case  was  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  and  a  new  trial  granted  him 
on  the  ground  of  newly  discovered  evidence.  In  January  1869  he 
was  again  before  the  Superior  Court  and  the  new  trial  resulted  in 
a  disagreement  of  the  jury,  but  in  September  of  that  year  the  third 
trial  was  had  and  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty  of  murder  in 
the  second  degree.  He  was  sentenced  to  State  Prison  for  life 
September  25,  1869.  where  he  died. 

JAMES  LE  ROY. 

The  career  of  James  LeRoy,  who  received  in  1850  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five  years  his  third  commitment  to  the  State  Prison  for  the 
term  of  fifteen  years  upon  his  plea  of  guilty  to  seven  different 
burglaries  committed  in  or  near  Winsted  and  New  Hartford  in  the 
years  1849  ^^^  1850,  is  in  many  respects  a  remarkable  one.  From 
his  boyhood  he  seemed  to  have  nothing  but  a  criminal  instinct. 
When  arrested  in  1850  he  was  placed  under  keepers  who  fell  asleep 
and  he  not  enjoying  their  society  departed  from  them.  He  had 
hand  cuffs  on  and  disliking  them,  proceeded  to  one  of  the  scythe 
shops,  broke  into  tlie  shop  and  set  one  of  the  water  grindstones 
running,  and  ground  the  shackles  from  his  wrists  and  then  secreted 
himself  so  that  he  was  not  found  by  the  officials  for  several  days, 
although  they  were  constantly  on  the  alert  for  him.  After  his 
release  from  the  Connecticut  State  Prison  he  was  engaged  in 
practical  observations  in  the  management  of  prisons  in  other  States 
and  in  1877  under  the  name  of  James  Whiting  was  sent  to  prison  for 
theft  for  three  and  a  half  years,  and  died  in  prison.  He  made  in 
1850  a  confession  of  his  exploits  which  was  ]mblished. 

WOLCOTTVILLE  BUKC.LARS. 

On  the  nioht  of   November   1876  the   warehouse  of  the  Union 


'&■ 


Alanufacturing  Company  in  Torrington  was  broken  into  and  a 
large  quantity  of  manufactured  goods  carried  away.  The  burglars 
stole  a  hand  car  from  the  section  house  and  started  towards  Hridge- 
port  on  the  Naugatuck  Railroad  track.  When  it  i)assed  through 
Waterbury  the  watchman  at  the  depot  informed  Superintendent 
Peach  of  the  pas.sage  of  the  car.  Wr.  Peach  immediately  had  an 
engine  fired  up  and  started  in  ])ursuit,  and  just  before  reaching 
Ansonia  at  about  half  ])ast  four  in  the  morning  the  engine  struck 
the  hand  car  and  threw  it  from  the  track.  Stopping  the  engine 
they  found  fifteen  ])ieces  of  woolen  goods  scattered  about,  but  the 
occupants  of  the  hand  car  had  fled,  but  were  tracked  in  the  snow 
and  soon  arrested.  They  were  lodged  in  Litchfield  jail  ami  had 
tlicir  trial  before  this  Court  December  6,  and  7,  1876  and  Franklin 
Johnson,  William  C.  Davis  and  William  C.  Davis.  Jr.  were  con- 
victed of  the  crime  and  received  State  Prison  sentences.  It  was 
a  case  that  excited  great  attention  partly  on  account  of  the  mode 
of  capture  and  the  novel  method  of  transit.     The  whole  evidence 


CtajyUftuj  ^. /U4.'»^ 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  1 55 

was  purely  circumstantial  and  the  defense  was  not  only  denial  by 
the  accused  but  a  fairly  proved  alibi  presented.  The  skillful  prose- 
cution conducted  by  the  State's  Attorney  Huntington  and  G.  H. 
Welch,  Esq.  with  the  adroit  defenses  presented  by  H.  B.  Graves  and 
the  large  attendance  at  the  trial  makes  it  a  noted  case. 

LIQUOR  TRI..\LS. 

From  the  Litchfield  Enquirer  of  April  29.  1880  we  take  extracts 
which  will  illustrate  the  great  battle  which  was  fought  in  our  Courts 
in  the  prosecution  for  the  illegal  sale  of  intoxicating  spirits  at  about 
that  date : 

"With  all  its  victories  in  the  moral  field,  temperance  has  hereto- 
fore met  defeat  or  but  partial  success  in  the  Courts.  Even  in  high 
teetotal  times,  when  the  people  were  electing  Prohibition  Governors 
and  Prohibition  Legislatures,  we  have  seen  rum-seller  after  rum- 
seller  brought  before  juries,  their  guilt  conclusively  proved,  yet 
escaping  justice  by  acquittal  or  disagreement.  The  old  prohibitory 
Statute  of  1854  in  this  County  at  least  was  an  utter  failure.  Of 
the  dozens  we  have  seen  tried  under  the  act  we  can  recollect  but 
one  conviction.  Lender  Local  Option  there  has  been  a  marked 
change,  particularly  of  late  years,  and  especially  since  the  popular 
feeling  against  the  liquor  traffic  has  been  intensified  by  the  Pdue 
Ribbon  movement.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  too,  that  Litchfield 
County  is  very  fortunate  in  her  State's  Attorney,  an  officer  who 
never  shirks  or  slights  his  duty,  whether  it  is  a  rum-seller,  or  a 
sheep  stealer  that  is  brought  to  the  bar  of  the  Superior  Court  for 
trial.  Of  late  years,  therefore  we  have  seen  several  convictions  bv 
juries,  but  in  this  County,  rum  and  justice  have  never  been  brought 
face  to  face  so  sharply  and  with  such  decisive  defeat — indeed  such 
utter  rout,  demoralization  and  capture  of  the  liquor  interest — as 
the  past  week  has  witnessed."  After  stating  the  trial  of  a  certain 
case  which  was  most  strongly  contested  by  State's  Attorney 
Huntington,  H.  P.  Lawrence  and  W.  B.  Smith  for  the  prosecution 
and  H.  B.  Graves  and  A.  H.  Fenn  for  defense  but  resulted  in  convic- 
tion of  the  parties,  the  article  continues:  "The  ])risoner  was  very 
much  overcome  and  went  home  completely  broken  down  and  took 
to  his  bed  seriously  if  not  dangerously  ill.  On  Thursday  the  Win- 
sted  Temperance  men  began  to  reap  the  benefit  of  their  victory. 
Dealer  after  dealer  came  up  to  make  such  settlement  as  he  could. 
The  terms  were  the  same  to  all.  All  costs  must  be  paid  and  an 
obligation  given  that  they  would  quit  the  traffic.  On  Friday  after- 
noon the  Court  adjourned  for  the  Term  with  the  following  record  of 
progress  for  about  six  days  work  on  liquor  cases : 

Three  convictions  with  fines  and  costs  amounting  to  about  $500 
and  one  hundred  and  six  cases  settled  for  $2,664.11  and  one  man 
in  jail. 

Messrs.  Forbes,  Holmes,  Lawrence,  W.  B.  Smith  and  others  are 
to  be  highly  commended  in  their  wonderfully  successful  assault  of 
what  has  so  long  been  considered  the  last  strong-hold  of  the  liquor 
traffic,  the  Glorious  uncertaintv  of  the  law !" 


156  LlTCJiFlKI.D  COUNTY  BlCNCH  AND  BAR 

MASTERS  VS.  WARRRX. 

One  of  the  important  civil  cases  tried  in  this  Court  came  from 
Warren. 

Nicholas  Masters,  while  riding  horse-back  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  town,  was  thrown  from  his  horse  bv  reason  of  its  breakins: 
through  a  small  wooden  sluice  or  bridge  and  received  serious  in- 
juries, having  his  neck  nearly  broken  and  for  some  years  carried 
his  head  turned  partly  around  and  also  received  some  other  minor 
injuries  of  not  so  serious  or  permanent  a  nature. 

His  attorneys,  Graves  and  Hollister,  brought  suit  against  the  town 
of  Warren  for  damages,  claiming  ten  thousand  dollars,  the  writ  re- 
turnable to  the  September  term,  1856.  A  long  exhaustive  trial  be- 
fore a  jury  was  had  at  the  November  term,  1857  i'^^  which  the 
plaintiff  recovered  thirty-five  hundred  dollars.  Some  very  inter- 
esting questions  came  up  during  the  trial  regarding  the  taking  of 
depositions  by  the  defendant  without  notice  to  the  ])laintifif  and  also 
in  the  charge  of  the  judge  to  the  jury  of  a  statement  made  by  the 
judge  of  matter  outside  of  the  evidence.  An  apjieal  was  taken  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors  by  the  defendant  claiming  a  new  trial 
which  the  Supreme  Court  did  not  grant  and  final  judgment  was 
rendered  against  the  town  at  the  April  term,  1858  for  three  thousand 
five  hundred  and  eighty-seven  dollars  and  fifty  cents  damages  and 
costs. 

The  story  is  told  in  connection  witli  this  case  that  Dr.  Ruel  one 
of  the  expert  witnesses  for  the  ])laintitTf  testified  that  he  examined 
the  plaintifl"'  and  found  him  sultering  from  tort(Khlorosis  of  the 
neck.  Mr.  Hollister  in  his  argument  indulged  in  the  high  sounding 
word  frequently,  portraying  the  sufiferings  of  his  client  during  his 
lifetime  from  such  a  terrible  complaint.  ( )ne  of  the  defendant 
lawvers  soon  after  met  Dr.  Buel  and  asked  him  what  that  big  word 
he  used  meant.  "StiiT  neck,"  was  the  answer.  "Why  didn't  you  say 
so  in  Court  said  the  lawyer.     That  word  cost  the  town  Si 500." 

Kor.i'.ixs  \"s.  coi'i'ix. 

In  1883  an  action  from  Salisbury  wlierein  Samuel  Robbins 
sued  the  administrator  of  the  .estate  of  (icorge  Coffing. 

The  points  of  law  involved  were  important  and  the  amount  in- 
volved was  about  $70,000,  an  unusually  large  sum  for  this  Court 
and  the  attorneys  engaged  were  of  the  highest  rank  in  the  State. 

George  A.  Hickox,  who  then  edited  the  Litchfield  Enquirer,  re- 
ports it  as  follows:  "The  management  of  the  case  by  the  noted 
counsel  on  each  side  res])cctively,  was  looked  on  with  much  interest-. 
Jndge  Warner  made  an  excellent  opening  argument  for  the  de- 
fendants, on  whom  the  ])urden  rested  to  ])rove  their  various  de- 
fenses. Then  followed  John  S.  lieach.  with  a  very  clear  quiet 
statement   of  the  ])laintift'"s  claim.      Most  interest  was  naturall\-   felt 


(«■■-':' 


MILKS   T.    GRAXGER. 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  1 57 

in  the  argument  of  Ex-Governor  Hubbard,  who  followed  Air.  Beach. 
The  elegant  forcible  style  of  his  address  showed  all  the  polish  of 
his  first  class  literary  work,  and  the  weight  of  his  oratory  was  made 
doubly  effective  by  his  remarkable  power  as  an  actor.  It  was 
worth  while  studying  the  use  he  made  of  an  old  pair  of  ste,;l 
spectacles  he  wears,  to  damn  the  defendants  claims  or  enforce  his 
own.  The  way  they  fell  on  the  table  was  made  to  express  the  ex- 
treme of  confidence  or  the  extreme  of  disgust.  They  came  down 
with  the  weight  of  a  sledge  hammer  in  emphasizing  the  one  or  the 
other  view.  His  mode  of  handling  a  law  paper  spoke  volumes.  In- 
deed we  have  heard  as  fine  rhetoric  and  as  fine  oratory  in  a  law 
court,  but  never  combined  with  such  acting.  Mr.  Perkins  closed 
the  case  with  a  very  telling  exposition  of  the  evidence  in  connection 
with  the  position  of  the  defendant."  The  jury  returned  a  verdict 
for  the  plaintiff  to  recover  $67,633.33  damages  and  costs. 

In  connection  with  Brother  Hickox's  discription  of  the  conduct 
of  the  trial  it  may  be  proper  to  add  that  this  was  the  last  argument 
in  a  law  court  that  "Dick"  Hubbard  ever  made. 

higgin's  escape. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  exciting  matters  that  have  arisen 
in  modern  years,  related  to  the  escape  of  Richard  Hadley  a  prisoner 
while  being  transported  to  the  State  Prison  in  Wethersfield  in  the 
year  1883. — Higgin's  alias  was  Richard  Hadley. 

The  following  extracts  from  the  papers  of  the  time  will  give  full 
details  as  well  as  some  interesting  history : 

When  James  R.  Higgins  escaped  from  the  wagon  in  which  he 
was  being  taken  from  Litchfield  to  Wethersfield  to  serve  out  a  tCii 
years  sentence  for  burglarly  it  was  supposed  that  he  had  been  fur- 
nished with  a  key  to  his  handcuffs  by  his  counsel,  Henry  H.  Prescott 
of  Litchfield.  A.  T.  Roraback  of  Canaan,  W.  B.  Smith  of  Winsted, 
and  Dwight  C.  Kilbourn  of  Litchfield  were  appointed  a  committee 
to  obtain  evidence  to  be  ])resented  to  the  court  at  Litchfield  touch- 
ing Mr.  Prescott's  connection  with  the  affair.  Mr.  Smith,  of  the 
committee,  was  at  Wethersfield  on  Tuesday  and  obtained  the  fol- 
lowing- statement  from  Higgins  : — 

I  first  met  Harry  H.  Prescott  of  Litchfield  soon  after  I  was  ar- 
rested, in  Litchfield  jail.  He  was  my  attorney  in  the  superior  court 
in  that  county.  When  I  called  him  into  the  case  he  agreed  to  help 
me  to  get  away  from  jail,  and  I  was  to  give  him  $250.  Not  having 
any  money  I  was  to  give  him  some  stolen  bonds  as  security.  The 
bonds  were  stolen  from  the  savings  bank  at  Woodbury,  this  state, 
and  the  total  amount  was  $7,500.  I  put  into  Prescott's  hands 
$6,400  in  bonds.  The  understanding  was  that  if  I  got  out  he  should 
have  the  bonds.  He  was  to  give  Paddy  Ryan  and  others  who  came 
from  New  York  to  assist  me  in  breaking  jail  all  the  points  about 
jail,  also  the  use  of  his  office,  and  in  short  'was  to  act  as  a  general 


158  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BliNClI  AND  BAR 

go-between  to  aid  nie  in  escaping"  from  jail.  The  understanding 
was  that  Prescott  was  not  to  negotiate  the  bonds  and  was  to  keep 
the  matter  quiet  until  Howard,  my  pal,  who  was  arrested  with  me, 
and  1  had  escaped.  Prescott  told  me  that  he  went  to  New  York  to 
see  Ryan  at  154  East  Twenty-third  street,  and  that  Ryan  was  afraid 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  him  in  the  matter.  Later  he  told  me 
that  he  had  been  to  New  York  again,  but  did  not  see  Ryan.  Soon 
after  Prescott  brought  me  a  letter  that  was  sent  to  him  by  Ryan  and 
written  by  Farley,  one  of  the  Ryan  gang.  The  letter  inquired 
Avhether  Prescott  was  all  solid  and  to  be  trusted.  After  reading 
the  letter  I  burned  it  in  the  jail  stove.  I  sent  a  letter  through  Pres- 
cott to  Ryan  saying  that  Prescott  was  straight  and  to  be  trusted. 

The  following  Sunday,  after  he  had  been  to  New  York,  Prescott 
came  to  me  and  stated  that  he  had  taken  the  bonds  to  the  bank 
parties  and  had  got  something  over  $400  for  them.  As  I  had  ob- 
jected to  his  doing  anything  about  the  bonds  until  I  had  made  my 
escape,  I  was  angry  when  1  found  that  he  had  given  them  up.  At 
that  time  he  gave  me  $15  and  in  a  day  or  two  gave  my  wife  $200.  I 
could  not  get  anything  more  out  of  him.  I  afterwards  found  that 
he  received  about  $1,200  for  the  bonds,  but  I  could  not  get  anything 
more  out  of  him.  My  friends  of  the  Ryan  gang  did  not  appear  and 
I  found  that  I  had  to  depend  upon  my  own  resources.  I  continued 
to  find  fault  because  Prescott  would  not  give  me  more  money,  and 
at  last  he  said  to  me,  about  two  weeks  before  court  opened,  that  if 
T  would  keep  still  he  would  get  me  a  key  that  would  fit  my  hand- 
cuffs, and  I  could  escape  either  when  on  the  way  from  jail  to  the 
court  house,  or  when  I  was  being  conveyed  to  the  state  prison  if  I 
was  convicted.  Howard  and  I  talked  it  over  and  concluded  to  make 
the  attempt  to  escape  when  we  were  being  conveyed  to  or  from  the 
court  room.  Prescott  brought  us  four  handcuff  keys  that  fitted  my 
handcuff's  and  two  small  keys,  like  dog-collar  keys  ;  also  two  files. 
I  had  the  four  handcuff  keys  in  my  pocket  all  the  time  during  the 
trial.  The  two  other  keys  I  filed  and  gave  to  Howard.  One  of  the 
files  I  kept  until  I  escai)ed,  the  other  I  left  in  the  jail.  When  Pres- 
cott gave  me  the  keys  he  told  me  that  he  knew  that  four  of  them 
would  fit  any  handcuff'  in  the  jail.  They  did  fit  without  any  filing. 
AMicn  we  were  taken  to  the  court  room  to  plead  Howard  was 
handcuffed  to  me  and  the  sheriff'  took  my  right  wrist  in  his  nippers. 
^Vhile  we  sat  in  the  dock,  Prescott  came  up  to  us  and  said:  "Why 
did  you  not  esca])e  on  the  way  over?"  I  told  him  that  Howard  might 
have  got  away,  but  I  could  not.  Prescott  replied :  "That's  right. 
You  had  better  wait  and  get  a\va\-  together."  While  I  was  in  the 
Litchfield  jail  Prescott  gave  me  a  revolver  loaded  with  five  cart- 
ridges, also  ten  cartridges  afterwards.  He  gave  them  to  me  in  my 
cell,  I  think  on  the  afternoon  of  the  day  I  was  sentenced.  I  wanted 
the  revolver  and  he  did  not  want  to  give  it  to  me  until  after  I  had 
received  a  visit  from  my  wife,  so  tliai  it  would  a])pear  as  if  she  had 


Wellixgtox  B.  Smith. 


irisTORiCAL  xoTr;s  159 

furnished  it  to  me  if  it  was  discovered.  I  asked  him  if  lie  had  it 
with  liim.  and  he  said  he  had.  I  then  asked  him  to  let  me  see  it. 
After  makin.Q"  me  promise  to  give  it  back  to  him,  he  let  me  take  it. 
I  examined  it  and  then  handed  it  back.  At  4  o'clock  Thitrsday 
evening,  after  I  was  sentenced,  he  gave  me  the  ten  cartridges.  The 
revolver  was  a  "Young  America"  or  "Young  American,"  I  don't 
remember  \\hich.  It  was  double-acting,  had  five  chambers,  and  was 
of  32  caliber.  I  did  not  know  where  he  got  it.  I  don't  remember 
whether  he  tnld  me  he  got  the  ke_\s  from  a  man  in  Litchfield,  or 
whether  he  said  he  was  going  to  get  them  of  some  man  there.  I 
understodd  that  the  man  was  an  officer  or  had  been  one.  The  last 
time  1  saw  I'rescott  before  my  escape  was  when  he  gave  me  the 
ten  cartridges  on  Thursday.  He  then  cautioned  me  not  to  use  the 
revolver,  shook  hands  with  me  and  wished  me  good  luck.  After 
mv  escai)e  I  i)awned  the  revolver  in  P)altimore.  I  had  it  tied  be- 
tween my  legs  the  Saturday  morning  when  they  started  to  take  me 
to  \\'ethersfield.  T  was  on  the  back  seat  of  the  last  wagon,  which 
the  sherift'  was  driving.  Howard  was  in  the  first  wagon  with  the 
deputy. 

]^lr.  I'rescott  was  j^resent  while  the  latter  part  of  this  statement 
was  made,  and  afterwards  cross-examined  Higgins  without  material- 
1\-  shaking  his  statement  of  the  case." 

:\iTc'ii.\Kr.  mox  cask. 

One  of  the  most  important  cases  of  our  Courts,  considering  it 
in  all  of  its  features,  was  the  case  of  Michael  Bion  from  the  town 
of  Xorth  Canaan. 

In  1 87 1  Lyman  Dunning's  store  at  East  Canaan  in  the  town  of 
Xorth  Canaan  was  burglarized,  and  a  woodchopper  named  Michael 
Bion  was  arrested  and  convicted  of  the  crime  and  sentenced  to  two 
years  in  State  Prison.  He  behaved  himself  well,  receiving  the  due 
credit  therefor  and  was  discharged  at  the  expiration  of  his  sentence 
with  no  great  love  for  Mr.  Dunning. 

In  1874  a  bag  containing  gun  powder  was  placed  near  the  house 
of  the  next  neighbor  of  Mr.  Dunning  occupied  by  the  congregation- 
al minister  and  was  exploded  in  the  night  time  setting  the  house  on 
fire,  but  doing  no  great  damage.  The  two  houses  looked  alike  and 
it  was  su])]>osed  that  the  intention  was  to  place  the  j'lowder  at  'Sir. 
Dunnings  house.  Bion  was  charged  with  this  deed  and  arrested  and 
after  a  hard  fought  trial  convicted  and  sentenced  to  ten  years  in 
State  Prison  mainly  by  the  active  agency  of  'Sir.  Dunning  which 
did  not  increase  Bion's  afl^ection  and  he  made  threats  of  violence, 
against  Mr.  Dunning.  Upon  his  discharge  from  prison  he  was 
intluced  t(T  return  to  France  his  native  country.  About  five  years 
after  this  he  was  discovered  working  under  an  assumed  name  in 
the  vicinity  of  Pine  Plains  only  a  few  miles  distant  from  East 
Canaan.     Mr.  Dunning  fearing  furtlicr  injurv  from  him  got  out  a 


lOo  j.nciii-iiaj)  corxTv  iiKxcir  and  \;.\\< 

sureties  of  tlie  i)eace  complaint,  obtained  a  warraiil  ami  when  he 
found  him  in  Connecticut  had  him  arrested  and  brought  befcjre  a 
justice  who  placed  him  under  bonds  in  the  sum  of  tivc  thousand 
dollars.  I '.ion  could  not  furnish  such  bond  and  on  the  19th  day  of 
November  1889  was  lodged  in  Litchfield  jail,  lie  employed  at- 
torneys who  instituted  habeas  corpus  proceedings  to  release  him  and 
by  various  stages  the  matter  came  before  the  Snpreme  Court  of 
h'rri^rs  at  the  May  Term  1890  and  the  report  of  the  case  occupies 
twenty  pages  of  the  5(;th  volume  of  the  Connecticut  lve])orts.  The 
Court  found  no  error  in  the  judgment  complained  of  and  I '.ion  still 
remained  in  the  Litchfield  jail.  Afterwards  an  arrangement  was 
made  by  the  French  Cousul  by  wliich  I'.ion  was  released  and  re- 
turned to  b'rance. 

'I'ril'     I'.OK JI^SSOX     Ml'RDI'R    'I'KIAL. 

Only  one  sentence  of  death  passed  by  this  Court  during  the 
Century  was  carried  into  eti'ect  and  this  was  u])on  Andrew  Bor- 
jcsson  a  native  of  Sweden  who  was  residing  in  Xew  Milford.  ( )n 
the  first  of  August  1890  in  the  night  season  Ijorjesson  went  to  the 
house  of  Homer  Buckingham  and  climbing  on  tlie  r(^of  of  the  ell 
jtart  of  the  house  entered  the  room  of  a  Swedish  girl  named  bjnnia 
Anderson,  a  servant  of  Mr.   r.uckingham's  and  murdered  her. 

Mr.  Buckingham  hearing  the  noise  in  the  room,  went  out  of  his 
lujuse  and  saw  Borjesson  u]jon  the  roof  of  the  house  from  whicli 
he  jtimped  and  ran  off  into  the  woods,  and  going  to  the  girls  room 
fotuid  her  lying  upon  the  tloor  in  a  ])ool  of  blood,  her  neck  cut  from 
ear  to  ear  on  the  back  side  with  other  wounds  u])on  her  body.  The 
murderer  was  arrested  and  bound  over  to  the  Sui)erior  Court  and 
a  true  bill  w^as  found  against  him  on  the  9th  of  (  )ctol)er  i8i;o.  He 
was  tried  before  the  Stiperior  Cotu't  in  December  and  a-  verdict  of 
guilty  foimd  against  him  December  31st  1890.  and  sentenced  to  l)e 
imng  January  29th,  1892.  His  counsel  made  most  strenuous  efforts 
for  his  reprieve  getting  depositions  from  relatives  in  Sweden  con- 
cerning his  sanity.  All  eft'orts  failed.  It  was  a  cool  deliberate 
murder  and  there  was  no  public  SNUipathy  or  extenuating  circum- 
stances. The  sentence  was  duly  carried  into  eff"ect  in  the  jail  yard 
at  Litchfield.  The  scenes  connected  with  the  execution  outside  of 
the  jail  enclosure,  were  of  a  disgraceful  character  but  everything 
connected  with  it  officiallv  were  solenm,  orderly  and  pro])er.  The 
citizens  of  the  village  were  exasperated  and  shocked  and  made  such 
an  ai)|)eal  to  the  public  sense  of  propriety  that  the  I^egislature  en- 
acted the  law  that  all  future  executions  of  the  death  penalty  shovdd 
be  had  within  the  State  Prison. 

COSilKX    TAX    C.\Slv. 

In  i8(;4.  June  Term,  a  very  interesting"  case  was  tried  at  W'in- 
sted   being  an  a])i)eal    from   the  decision   of  the    P.oard  of  Relief  of 


CIIARI.KS     I.    I'ORTKR. 


HISTORICAL   XOTES  l6l 

Town  of  Goshen,  about  abatement  of  Taxes.  The  amount  involved 
was  trifling-,  but  the  ])rinciple  was  important  enough  for  a  two 
weeks  contest  with  a  very  large  number  of  witnesses  and  several 
attorneys.     A  local  bard  reports  the  trial  as  follows: 

GOSHEXIA. 

A   famous  tax-case  once   was  tried. 

lly  the  staid  old  land  of  Goshen: 
One  Fessenden  Ives  was  taxed  too  high. 

At  least,  that  was  his  notion. 

He  said  his  land  was  cold  and  wet. 

And  hard-hacks  covered  the  ground. 
The  once  fertile  soil  was  sterile  and  cold 

And  \ellow  charlicks  abound. 

His  barn  was  like  sweet  charity 

That  co\'eretli  a  nudtilude  of  sin  : — 
The  outside  was  neat  and   fair  to  the  e\e. 

But  old   rotten   timbers   within. 

Pie's  assessed  too  high,  the  rest  too  low. 

.\nd  there's  a  ])loi  to  lake  his  gold, 
"lis  wrong  to  do  so  after  \ears  of  toil, 

Thus  to  rob  him   when  he's  old. 

The  town  ajjpeared  b\    lluntington  and  Warner, 

T'.y    Webster,    Welcli   and   judd. 
\Miile  1  ves  em])lo\(.'d  Hubbard,  llickoxand  llurrell 

To  shed  his  op])onent's  blood. 

The  air  was  fragrant  with  sweet  breath  of  June, 

Outside  were  the  birds  and  bees  : — 
The  Judge's  desk  was  strewed  with  tiowers. 

Hardbacks,  charlick  and  cheese. 

The  stenogra])her  dreams  of  hardback  on  toast, 

(Jf  iv\',  rocks,  alders  and  l)irch. 
As  the  lawyers  try  to  win  their  case 

The  other  side  tr\  ing  to  smirch. 

The  case  dragged  on  its  weary  length, 

A\'atched  by  Goshen  ladies  fair, 
While  poor  old  Kilbourn,  the  portl_\-  clerk. 

Sat  fast  asleep  in  his  chair. 

For  ten  long  da\s  they  fussed  and  fumed. 

With  witnesses  goaded  to  tears, 
\\'hile  the  costs  were  doubtless  large  enough. 

To  pav  the  taxes  a  hundred  years. 


1 62 


I^ITCHFIELD  COUNTY  I'.KXCII  AND  BAR 


KD\\ARL)  A.    -XKI.LIS. 


Till-;  .ma.\xi:rixg  cask. 

Ivlwin  Manncrint^-  a  resident  of  Roxljurv  died  (in  Feliruarv  19, 
1893,  the  result  of  takiui.;  a  dose  of  Epsom  Salts  for  medicinal  pur- 
])oses  in  whieli  as  afterwards  discovered  was  a  (juantity  of  strich- 
nine.  The  coroner  made  a  very  full  investigation  which  resulted  in 
tile  arrest  of  Mrs.  Mannerini^'  for  the  crime  of  ])oisonino-  her  hus- 
band. It  was  admitted  that  strichnine  had  been  kept  in  the  house 
for  tlie  i)ur])ose'of  poisoning-  foxes,  and  it  was  shown  that  she  had 
|)urchased  strichnine  from  a  neii.jhl)orinL;'  drui^'i^ist  a  short  time 
before  his  death.  She  was  bound  over  for  trial  to  the  Su])erior 
Court  and  a  true  bill  was  found  aii^ainst  her  b_\-  the  (^irand  Jury. 
The  trial  occurred  at  Litchtield  in  November  1893,  lasting  six 
<lays  and  residted  in  her  ac(|uittal. 

it  was  ]K'rhai)s  the  most  sensational  trial  ever  held  in  this 
Court.  The  ])ris()ner  was  led  into  Court  leaning  uj)on  the  arms  of 
two  friends  and  one  or  two  ])hvsicians  were  constantly  near  to  ad- 
minister stinmlants  which  was  occasionally  necessary.  Several 
ladies  of  the  \illage  of  Litchfield  interested  themselves  in  her  trial 
by  attending  Court  ever\  dav  arraxed  in  all  the  sombre  blackness 
of  mourning  habiliments.  It  seemed  like  a  stage  play  rather  than 
a  cold  bldoded  matter  of  fact  trial.  Her  attorney  left  no  art  or 
artifice  untouched  to  arouse  the  symjiathies  of  the  Court  and  jury. 
A  distinguished  jurist  remarked  that  it  was  the  most  artistic  trial 
he  ever  witnesse<l. 


mamaasm 

L1;U.\AR1J  J.    MCKJ'RSUX. 


HISTORICAL  XOTES  163 

XOK.MAX    JiKooKS.    WILL    CASK. 

Norman  IJrooks  a  farnier  li\iim"  in  Winchester  tlied  on  the  28th 
of  July  1895.  aged  78  years.  He  left  a  widow  bnt  no  children  and 
had  a  small  amount  of  property.  .After  his  death  a  will  was  offered 
for  probate  which  was  made  on  the  15th  of  January  1895  "^  the 
office  of  Warner  ^:  Landon  at  Salisbur\'.  From  the  probate  of 
this  will  his  widow  appealed  to  the  Superior  Court.  Upon  the  trial 
of  the  case  in  the  Superior  Court  the  claim  was  made  that  the  will 
in  (juestion  was  not  made  by  Xorman  Brooks  but  by  some  one  per- 
sonating' him  and  that  the  disposition  of  his  property  given  in  this 
will  was  entirel}-  dift'erent  from  repeated  declarations  he  had  made 
and  also  that  there  was  a  ])revious  will  which  correspMiidod  with 
these  declarations.  The  contestants  had  his  body  exhumed  and  the, 
Avitnesses  to  the  will  were  present  to  identify  or  not  identif}'  the 
person.  It  was  also  claimed  that  one  E.  M.  Clossey  whose  wife 
was  a  relative  of  the  deceased  and  with  himself  were  the  principal 
beneficiaries  of  the  disputed  will  was  largel\-  instrumental  in  the 
j)roduction  of  this  will.  That  he  went  with  Mr.  r)rook>  who  was 
quite  an  infirm  man  on  one  of  the  coldest  days  in  January  to  Salis- 
bury to  get  the  will  made  although  he  was  not  actuall\'  |)resent  at 
its  execution.  The  case  came  to  trial  before  the  Superior  Court  and 
a  jury  at  AX'inchester  at  the  A])ril  Term  1896,  and  after  a  protraced 
trial  the  jury  found  that  there  was  undue  influence  exerted  u])on  the 
testator  in  making  a  part  of  said  will  to  wit.  thai  ])art  which  g'ave 
the  residue  of  the  estate  to  said  Clossey  and  also  of  that  clause 
which  gave  him  ])Ower  to  sell  all  the  real  estate  and  that  said 
paragra])h  was  null  and  void  Intt  confirming"  and  establishing  the  rest 
of  the  will.  The  case  was  appealed  to  the  Su])reme  Court  of  Errors 
at  the  (  )ctober  Term  189C).  I  pon  a  motion  for  a  new  trial  for  a 
A'erdict  against  evidence. 

In  the  record  of  the  case  the  e\idence  is  i)rinted  in  full,  occujiy- 
ing"  269  ])ages. 

.\fter  a  full  hearing  before  the  Supreme  Court  the  motion  for 
a  new  trial   was  denied. 

II  ANI'.S    .M  IKDl-.K    TKIAL. 

In  l'\'bruar\-  1901.  John  T.  Hayes,  a  young  man  of  Winsted, 
shot  and  killed  Winnifred  F.  Cooke,  a  young  lady  he  had  fallen 
in  love  with,  because  she  would  not  elope  with  him  and  marry 
against  the  wishes  of  her  father.  The  tragedy  occitrred  at  the 
Gilbert  Home  in  Winsted  on  the  nth  of  February,  where  the  lady 
W'as  employed  as  a  teacher.  He,  after  shooting  her  shot  himself 
three  times  in  his  head — but  failed  to  kill  hiiuself — and  was  held  for 
trial  in  the  Superior  Court.  The  trial  came  on  at  Litchfield  at  the 
October  Term,  before  Judge  Elmer  and  lasted  four  weeks,  when  the 
Jurv  returned   a  virdict  of,  on  the  8th  of   Xovember  of  guilty  of 


\<)4  i.n\iii"ii-:i.i)  C()L■^'l'^    1!i;ncii  and  i;.\k 

murder  in  tlie  second  dei^ree,  and  lie  was  sentenced  to  imprison- 
ment for  life.  The  defense  was  insanity  froni  hereditary  causes 
and  four  cx])erl  physicians  were  ])resent  all  through  the  trial,  and 
testified  from  a  supposed  state  of  facts — which  it  took  nearly  two 
hours  to  read.  Two  of  them  pronounced  him  not  responsible  and 
the  other  two  thoui^ht  him  responsible,  for  which  important  evi- 
dence the  state  allowed  nearly  two  thousand  dollars,  while  the 
iur\  ])ai(l  no  attention  to  them  at  all,  but  on  their  first  ballot  stood 
eij^'ht  for  first  degree  and  three  for  the  second  deg'ree  and  one 
blank.  After  twelve  hours  confinement  in  the  jury  room  they  all 
ai.;reed  to  brinq-  in  a  verdict  of  murder  in  the  second  deg'ree,  which 
the  court  acce])ted.  It  was  the  most  exi)ensive  trial  on  our  cost 
book.      The  total  expenses  bein;.^'  a  little  over  seven  thousand  dollars. 

HADDOCK  C.\SK. 

( )nc  of  the  most  important  cases  re^ardin^"  the  property  rights 
of  husband  and  wife,  and  also  one  that  has  made  great  confusion 
in  the  di\-orce  laws  of  the  country,  was  decided  in  the  b'nited  States 
SujM-eme  Court,  .\])ril  12,  1906,  and  can  be  found  in  A'ol.  201  of  said 
Re])orts  beginning  at  i)age  562.  This  case  had  its  ince])tiou  in  this 
Superior  Court,  December  1881,  and  is  known  liy  the  legal  pro- 
fession as  the  case  of  Haddock  vs.  Haddock. 

The  facts  are  briefly  as  follows:  The  Haddocks  were  married 
in.  i(S68  in  New  York,  where  both  parties  then  resided.  The  very 
(lav  of  the  ceremonv  the\'  separated,  cUid  never  lived  together.  Tn 
i8,Si  .Mr.  Haddock  having  resided  in  CtMuiecticut  for  three  years, 
obtained  a  divorce  from  his  wife  Harriet  Haddock,  at  the  December 
term,  on  the  ground  of  desertion.  The  service  of  the  writ  was  by 
])ublication  in  the  Litchfield  Enquirer  and  a  copy  sent  b\-  mail  to 
the  defendant  at  Tarr\town,  X.  Y.  where  it  was  supposed  she  re- 
sided. This  divoree  was  granted  December  C).  1881,  and  the  decree 
was  signed  b\  Hilclicock,  judge.  .\t  that  time  the  ]~)laintifi'  was 
poor  but  he  afterwards  acquired  con.iiderable  ])roperty,  and  also 
married  another  wife  by  whom  he  had  children.  Tn  1894  ^^^^  ^^^^ 
wife  brought  suit  against  him  in  Xew  York  for  a  divorce  from 
bed  and  board  and  for  alimony.  Constructive  service  was  made 
of  this  ]:)rocess  and  she  obtained  a  decree.  As  there  was  no  per- 
sonal service  the  judgment  for  alimony  was  ineft'ectual.  Tn  1899 
she  brought  another  suit  against  him,  and  obtained  personal  service 
on  him,  and  was  allowed  a  decree  for  alimon\-  for  $780.  a  year. 
The  defendant  in  this  last  suit  i)lead  for  one  of  his  answers  the 
Connecticut  divorce  in  1881,  but  the  Xew  York  courts  disallowed 
it.  Haddock  ai)i)ealed  to  the  I'nited  States  Supreme  Court  on  the 
ground  that  the  decree  denied  full  faith  and  credit  to  the  judgment 
of  the  Connecticut  courts,  but  the  Supreme  C(nirt  upheld  the  actions 
of  the  .\'ew  York  courts  and  sustained  the  judgment,  five  judg^es 
in  the  affirmative  and  four  dissentinj^.  The  discussion  and  ex- 
])lanation  of  this  seemingly  inconsistent  decision  require  thirty  pages 
of  fine  ])rint  in  the  Re])ort. 


lll'.XU^'      1.     AI.l.HN. 


IIIS'l'OKICAI,   XdTl'lS 


165 


RICIIAKI)  T.    IIIGGIXS. 
COl'N'lA     COKOM'.K. 

rrc\iiius  to  1883  all  siukk'n  deaths  that  occurred  in  the  county 
were  rei)orte(l  t<i  the  Clerk's  office  only  by  the  returnes  of  a  jury 
of  in(|uest.  A  very  great  many  of  such  deaths  were  never  reported, 
and  those  that  were,  showed  some  remarkable  verdicts. 

In  1SS3  the  Legislature  enacted  a  law  for  the  proper  retiu-n  and 
preservation  of  these  untimely  deaths.  Each  county  was  to  have 
a  coroner  who  should  be  aiijiointed  by  the  Judges  of  the  Su])erior 
Court  at  llieir  annual  meeting,  and  who  should  hold  office  three 
}ears,  and  until  another  was  a])pointe(l  in  their  place.  The  county 
coroner  had  ])o\\er  to  ap])oint  an  al)le  and  discreet  person  learned 
in  medical  science  to  be  medical  examiner  in  each  town  in  the 
county.  The  medical  examiner  was  to  examine  the  cause  and 
manner  of  each  sudden  death  and  make  his  report  thereon  to  the 
county  coroner  who  was  to  kecj)  a  record  of  such  deaths.  The 
medical  examiner's  re]-)orts  were  to  be  placed  on  file  with  the  clerk 
of  the  Superior  Court. 

The  tirst  County  Coroner  in  Litchfield  Countv  was  Col.  Jacob 
Hardenl)urg]i  of  Canaan,  who  held  the  office  until  his  decease  on 
April  4,  1892.  Richard  T.  Higgins  of  Winchester  was  appointed 
to  succeed  him,  and  has  held  the  office  from  that  time  until  the 
present. 


1 66 


LITCIll"Ji;i,l)  COINTV   liEXCTI  AND  P.AR 


FRANK    \V.    ETlIliRIDGK 


llKAI/i'lL    OFFICERS. 

In  1893  the  Legislature  enacted  a  law  for  the  appointment  of  a 
County  Health  Officer,  wlio  was  to  be  an  attorney-at-law  and  be 
a|)[)()inted  1)y  the  judges  of  the  Superior  Court,  and  hold  office  for 
four  years.  The  statute  prescribes  that  he  shall  cause  the  execution 
of  the  laws  relating  to  public  health  and  the  prevention  and  abate- 
ment of  nuisances  dangerous  to  public  healtli.  and  of  laws  relating 
to  the  registration  of  vital  statistics,  and  co-operate  with,  and  super- 
vise the  doings  of  town,  city  and  borough  health  officers,  and  boards 
of  health  within  his  county.  He  is  clothed  with  all  the  ])owers  of  a 
grand  juror  and  prosecuting  officer  for  the  ])rosecution  of  violations 
of  laws  relating  to  such  matters. 

The  appointee  was  Walter  vS.  Judd,  of  Litchfield.  The  sec- 
ond was  William  F.  Hurlbut  of  W^inchester,  in  1894,  and  the  third 
was  the  ])resent  incumbent,  l^'rank  W.  Ltberidge,  who  has  held  the 
office  since  1896. 


AKTIIIK    D.    WAKXKK. 


JTISTORICAI.    X(Vl'i:S 


167 


.MAIUL  S 


iior.c()>Fn. 


ATTORXEV  GENERAL. 


In  1897  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut  enacted  a  law  for  the 
election  of  an  Attorney  General.  In  Xovember  1906  ^Marcus  H, 
Holcomb  a  member  of  this  bar,  but  residing"  in  Southington  and 
practicing  law  both  in  that  town  and  in  Hartford  was  elected  to 
that  office. 


i68  i.iTC[ri*ii:i.i)  col'xtv  liKxcii  and  uar 

THE  FIRST  LAW  REPORTS. 

Judge  Church  iu  his  adch'css  uientiuns  the  fact  that  the  first  Law 
Reports  iu  this  couutry  were  pul:)hshed  at  Litchfield  soon  after  the 
estabhshment  of  the  Law  School,  by  Ephraim  Kirby.  Esq.  who  was 
then  a  prominent  and  successful  attorney  at  Litchfield. 

A  manuscript  copy  of  part  of  these  reports  has  been  preserved 
by  some  of  his  descendants,  and  has  been  placed  in  the  room  of 
the  Historical  Society  at  Litchfield,  by  whose  courtesy  I  have  been 
able  to  reproduce  in  this  work  the  first  page  of  the  ""Symsbury" 
case. 

I  am  also  enabled  to  give  a  picture  of  this  eminent  man  from 
a  photograph  of  a  painting  presented  to  St.  Paul's  Lodge,  F  and  A. 
]\L  of  Litchfield,  l)y  Col.  E.  K.  Russell  V.  S.  A.,  a  grandson  of 
Col.  Kirby. 

I  also  repuljlish  the  preface  to  the  Reports,  together  with  a  short 
memoir  of  its  author  and  a  list  of  the  books  composing  his  Law 
Library. 

PREPACIv. 

The  uncertainty  and  contradiction  attending  the  judicial  de- 
cisions in  this  state,  have  long  been  subjects  of  complaint. — The 
sotirce  of  this  complaint  is  easilv  discovered. — When  our  ancestors 
emigrated  here,  they  brought  with  them  the  notions  of  jurisprudence 
which  prevailed  in  the  country  from  whence  the}"  came. — The  riches, 
luxury,  and  extensive  commerce  of  that  country,  contrasted  with  the 
equal  distribution  of  property,  simplicity  of  manners,  and  agricultur- 
al habits  and  employments  of  this,  rendered  a  deviation  from  the 
English  laws,  in  many  instances,  highly  necessary.  This  was  ob- 
served— and  the  intricate  and  prolix  ])racticc  of  the  English  coiu'ts 
was  rejected,  and  a  mode  of  practice  more  simple,  and  better  ac- 
commodated to  an  easy  and  speedy  administration  of  justice,  adopt- 
ed.— Our  Courts  were  still  in  a  state  of  cmbarrasment,  sensible  that 
the  common  law  of  England,  "though  a  highly  ini]iroved  system," 
was  not  fully  applicable  to  onr  situation  ;  but  no  provision  being 
made  to  preserve  and  ])ublish  proper  histories  of  their  adjudica- 
tions, ever\-  attem])t  of  the  judges,  to  run  the  line  of  distinction,  be- 
iwecn  what  was  applicable  and  what  not,  prov'ed  abortive:  For 
the  i)rinci])les  of  their  decisions  were  soon  forgot,  or  misunderstood, 
or  erroneously  rej^orted  from  memor\-. —  Mence  arose  a  confusion  in 
the  determination  of  our  courts  ; — the  rules  of  ])roperty  became  un- 
certain, and  litigation  proportionablv  increased. 

In  this  situation,  some  legislative  exertion  was  found  necessary; 
and  in  the  year  1785  an  act  j^assed,  requiring  the  Judges  of  the 
Superior  Court,  to  render  written  reasons  for  their  decisions,  in 
cases  where  the  pleadings  closed  in  an  issue  at  law. — This  was  a 
great  advance  toward  imi)rovement ;  still  it  left  the  business  of 
reformation  but  half  performed  : — For  the  arguments  of  the  Judges, 


It    f/v^   I  /fit  r-y  ^•'^  '<" 


a^'t'x) 


"  •.  ./..    ^  v..  .w'^>  .*C^*w,x^*  ^..  .'^  y^"  ^^^   y  ■-  ^  -;5 


'^4 


REPRODUCTIOX   OF   KIRr.Y  S    :\[AXUSCRIPT. 


IIISTOKICAL   NOTES  169 

without  a  liistory  of  the  whole  case,  would  not  always  be  intelliigible ; 
and  they  would  become  known  to  but  few  persons  ;  and  being"  written 
on  loose  papers,  were  exposed  to  be  mislaid,  and  soon  sink  into  total 
oblivion. — Besides,  very  many  important  matters  are  determined  on 
motions  of  various  kinds,  where  no  written  reasons  are  rendered, 
and  so  are  liable  to  be  forever  lost. 

Hence  it  became  obvious  to  every  one,  that  should  histories  of 
important  causes  be  carefully  taken  and  published,  in  which  the 
whole  process  should  a])pear,  showing"  the  true  grounds  and  princi- 
ples of  the  decision,  it  would  in  time  produce  a  permanent  system 
of  common  law. — Pnit  the  Court  being  ambulatory  through  the 
State,  the  undertaking  would  be  attended  with  considerable  expeuce 
and  interruption  of  other  business,  without  any  prospect  of  private 
advantage ;  therefore,  no  gentleman  of  the  profession  seemed  willing 
to  make  so  great  a  sacrifice. — I  had  entered  upon  this  business  in  a 
partial  manner,  for  private  use  ;  which  came  to  the  knowledge  of 
several  gentlemen  of  distinction. —  I  was  urged  to  i)ursue  it  more 
extensively ; — and  being  persuaded  that  an  attempt  of  the  kind 
(however  imperfect)  might  be  niade  in  some  degree  subservient 
to  the  great  object,  1  compiled  the  \dlume  oi  Reports  which  is  now 
presented  to  the  public. — Could  any  ettort  of  mine  induce  govern- 
ment to  provide  for  the  ])rosecution  of  so  necessary  a  work  b_\"  a 
more  able  hand,  my  wishes  would  be  gratifie<l,  and  ni\  lal)our  in 
accomplishing  this,  ani]il\-  repaid. 

In  these  Reports.  1  have  endeavored  to  throw  the  matter  into  as 
small  a  compass  as  was  ct)nsistent  witli  right  understanding  of  the 
case: — Therefore,  I  have  not  stated  the  ])leading"s  or  arguments 
further  than  was  necessary  to  bring  up  the  points  relied  on,  except 
some  few  instances  which'  seemed  to  require  a  more  lengtln-  detail 
of  argument. — .\s  the  work  is  designed  for  general  use  in  this 
state,  I  ha\e  avoided  technical  terms  and  ]:)hrases  as  nmch  as  pos- 
sible, that  it  might  be  more  intelligible  to  all  classes  of  men. — Some 
cases  are  reported  which  are  merely  local,  and  have  reference  to  the 
peculiar  ]M-actice  of  this  state;  these  may  appear  unimportant  to 
readers  in  other  states;  l)ut  the\  were  necessary  to  the  great  object 
of  the  work. 

1  am  sensible  that  this  production  is  introduced  to  the  world 
under  sircumstances  ver\"  unfavorable  to  its  reputation. — 15ut,  how- 
ever dififerent  I  might  be,  under  other  circumstances,  I  feel  an  honest 
confidence  in  this  attempt  to  advance  the  common  interest  of  my 
fellow-citizens ; — and  that,  so  obvious  are  the  difificulties  which 
occur  in  almost  every  stage  of  the  business,  that  to  d.etail  them  in 
a  preface  would  be  oiTering  an  insult  to  the  understanding  of  my 
readers. — The  candid  and  generous,  if  they  read  the  Reports,  will 
doubtless  find  frequent  occasion  to  draw  into  exercise  those  ex- 
cellent virtues  ;  and  as  to  readers  of  an  opposite  disposition,  I  have 
neither   wishes  or   fears  concerning  them. — If  any  one  should  ex- 


I/O  JJTCliFJKLD  COUXTV   r.EXClI  AND  F.AR 

perience  disagreeable  sensations,  from  ilie  inelegance  of  this  per- 
formance, let  him  rest  assured  he  cannot  more  sincerely  regret  its 
faults  than  I  do." 

Having  persued  Mr.  Kirby's  "Reports  of  Cases  adjudged  in 
■the  Sui^erior  Court,  from  the  year  1785  to  1788,"  it  appears  to  us 
that  the  Cases  are  truly  reported. 

Richard  Law. 

EijpiiALET  Dyer. 

Roger  Sherman. 

William  Pitkin. 

Oliver  Ellsworth. 

ephraim  kirby. 

Ephraim  Kirby  was  born  in  Litchfield  in  1756,  as  appears  by 
the  records  of  the  town.  His  birth  is  also  claimed  to  have  been 
in  the  town  of  Washington,  Conn,  on  the  site  of  the  residence  of 
the  late  Hon.  O.  H.  I'latt.  He  was  a  farmer  boy,  but  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  on  the  arrival  of  the  news  of  the  Battle  of  Lexington  he 
shouldered  his  musket  and  marched  with  the  volunteers  from  Litch- 
field to  the  scene  of  conflict  and  was  present  at  tlie  Battle  of  Bunker 
Hill.  He  remained  in  the  field  until  independance  was  won,  ex- 
cept when  driven  from  it  by  severe  wounds.  He  was  in  nineteen 
battles  and  skirmishes,  among  them  Brandvwine,  Monmouth  and 
Germantown,  where  he  received  thirteen  wounds,  seven  of  which 
were  saber  cuts  on  the  head  inflicted  by  a  British  soldier  at  German- 
town,  where  Kirby  was  left  for  dead  upon  the  field.  ]\Ir.  Kirby 
studied  law  in  the  office  of  Reynolds  Marvin,  Esq.,  who  had  been 
King's  Attorney  before  the  war,  and  who  was  a  prominent  member 
of  the  bar.  In  1787  he  received  the  degree  of  M.  A.  from  Yale 
College.  After  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he  married  Ruth  Marvin, 
daughter  of  his  preceptor.  Col.  Kirby  took  a  prominent  part  in  the 
political  matters  of  the  day,  and  in  1791  was  first  elected  representa- 
tive to  the  Legislature,  and  was  re-elected  at  thirteen  semi-annual 
elections,  and  was  several  years,  candidate  for  the  office  of  governor. 

On  the  election  of  Jeflferson  to  the  Presidency,  in  1801.  Col. 
Kirby  was  appointed  supervisor  of  the  national  revenue  for  the 
State  of  Connecticut.  U])on  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  the  Presi- 
dent appointed  him  a  judge  of  the  then  newly  organized  territory 
of  New  Orleans.  Having  accepted  the  station,  he  set  out  for  New 
Orleans ;  but  he  was  not  destined  to  reach  that  place.  Having 
proceeded  as  far  as  Fort  Stoddard,  in  the  Missiissippi  territory,  he 
was  taken  sick,  and  died  October  2d,  1804,  aged  forty-seven — at  a 
period  when  a  wide  career  of  public  usefulness  seemed  opening 
upon  him.  His  remains  were  interred  with  the  honors  of  war  and 
other  demonstrations  of  respect.  Col.  Kirby  was  a  man  of  the 
highest  moral  and  well  as  physical  courage — devoted  in  his  feelings 
and  aspirations — warm,  generous  and  constant  in  his  attachments — 


KTHRAlNr    KlRliV 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  17I 

and  of  indomitable  energy.  He  was,  withal,  gentle  and  winning 
in  his  manners,  kindly  in  his  disposition,  and  naturally  of  an  ardent 
and  cheerful  temperament,  though  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  were 
saddened  by  heavy  pecuniary  misfortunes.  As  a  lawyer,  he  was 
remarkable  for  frankness  and  downright  honesty  to  his  clients, 
striving  always  to  prevent  litigation,  uniformly  allaying  irritation 
and  effecting  compromises,  and  only  prosecuting  with  energy  the 
just  and  good  cause,  against  the  bad.  He  enjoyed  the  friendship 
of  manv  sages  of  the  Revolution,  his  correspondence  with  whom, 
would  form  interesting  materials  for  the  history  of  his  time. 

Col.  Kirby.  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  IMasonic  fraternity. 
He  was  one  of  the  early  Masters  of  St.  Paul's  Lodge  of  Litchfield, 
and  for  many  years  was  its  secretary.  He  was  a  beautiful  penman, 
as  is  evidenced  by  the  records  of  St.  Paul's  Lodge.  He  was  largely 
instrumental  in  forming  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  State  of  Connecti- 
cut. an(J  was  one  of  its  early  officials.  He  was  also  a  prominent 
Royal  Arch  Mason,  and  was  a  delegate  to  the  convention  which 
organized  the  general  Crand  Chapter  of  the  United  States,  and 
was  its  first  General  Grand  High  I'riest.  When  he  left  Litchfield 
to  accept  the  position  of  Judge  of  the  territory  of  Louisana,  he 
gave  to  St.  Paul's  Lodge,  Litchfield,  his  library  of  miscellaneous 
books,  which  have  been  carefully  preserved  by  the  Lodge  as  a 
memorial  of  him.  and  are  now  placed  in  the  fireproof  building  of 
the   Ilistorial  Society. 

He  also  sold  his  law  books  to  Seth  P.  Beers  and  I  am  enabled 
to  give  the  conveyance  with  the  list  of  books,  which  will  show  the 
library  of  a  prominent  practising  lawyer  of  a  century  ago. 

List  of  Law  Books  sold  to  Seth  P.  Beers  by  my  husband  Ephraim 
Kirby  and  delivered  to  said  Beers  by  me  in  i)ursuance  of  written 
directions  from  mv  said  husband  wliich  directions  bear  the  date 
of  July  the  5th  A.  D.  1804. 

A'ols.  \'ols. 

Rlackstones   Commentaries  4  Powel  on  Devises 

Dunscombs  trial  per  ])ais  2  Woods  Institute 

Beacon  Abridgm't  5  Coke  on  Littleton 

Jacobs  Dictionary  i  Woodesons  Lectures 

English   v^tatutes  ^  P)acon  on  Awards 

Goddphin  on  Executots,  etc.  i  Xew  York  Atty  \'ade  ]\Iecum 

Fosters  Crown  Law  i  SchilHers  Practice 

Bullen  Nisi  Prius  i  Barlamiqui  on  Xat.  Law 

Powel  on  Mortgages  i  Historical  Law  Tracts 

]\Iorgans  Essays  3  Compleat  Attorney 

Attorneys  A'ade  ]\ tecum  2  Stats.  England  abridgd 

Comyn's  Digest  5  Stiles  Practical  Regr. 

Cokes  Institute  2  Part  i  English  Pleader 

Hawkins  Plea  of  ve  Crown  2  Clerks  Tutor 


172 


IJTCIIKIKI.I)   CorXTV    BENCH   AND   BAR 


Vols 
Every  man  his  own  Lawyer 
Office  of  Justice 
Douglass  on  Wills 
Law  of  Evidence 
Dagges  Criminal  Law 
Statutes  of  Vermont 
J5enthams  Defence  of  I'sury 
Adye  on  Court  Martial 
J^eccaria  on  Crimes 
Acts  of   1st  Session  of  Con- 


gress 


Acts    of    3d    Session    of    5th 


Congress 


Acts   of    1st    Session   of  6th 

Congress 
Acts    of    1st    Session    of    ist 

Congress 
Saxbys  Customs 
Holts  Reports 
Strangers  Reports 
Burrows  Reports 
Wilsons  Reports 
W.  Blackstone  Reports 
Browns  Reports 
Douglass  Reports 
Dain fords  Reports 
Salkelds  Reports 
Lutwyches  Reports 
Cokes  Reports 
Crokes  Reports 
Kebles  Reports 

( Signed  j 


s. 

Vols., 

I 

I'lowdens  Rei^orts 

I 

2 

X'entries  Reports 

I 

Carthews  Reports 

I 

Hobarts  Reports 

M 

3 

Cowpers  Reports 

I 

X'ernons  Reports 

2 

X'esey's  Reports 

2 

Pre  Chancery 

I 

Fincks  Reports 

I 

Hardwicks  Reports 

I 

\'aughan's  Reports 

I 

Sidertins  Reports 

I 

Thos.  Raymond  Reports 

I 

Littletons  Reports 

I 

Yelvertons   Reports 

I 

Dyer's  Reports 

I 

Moore's  Reports 

I 

Palmer's  Reports 

I 

Jenkins  Reports 

I 

2 

Fitzgibbons  Reports 

I 

5 

Saville's  Reports 

I 

3 

Peere  Williams  Reports 

3 

2 

Atkins  Reports 

3 

I 

Livins  Reports 

2 

I 

Ambles  Reports 

I 

Lord  Raymonds  Reports 

2 

Comberbach's  Reports 

I 

Bulstrode's  Reports 

7 

Comyns  Reports 

3 

Chipman's  Reports 

3 

Kirbys  Reports 

RuTiiv    Kikuv 


igucts 


KOGER   SHKR:\rAN'. 


HISTORICAL  XOTES  173 


Signers  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. 


ROGER  SHERMAX. 


One  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  practice  of  the  law  in  1754  by  the  Litchfield  County 
Court. 

He  was  born  in  Newton.  ]\Iass.,  April  19,  1721.  and  received  a 
verv  limited  education,  and  learned  the  trade  of  a  shoemaker.  His 
father,  William  Sherman,  dying  when  Roger  was  twenty  years  old, 
he  soon  after  removed  to  New  Mil  ford,  Connecticut,  and  lived  witli 
his  brother  William  who  had  been  settled  there  on  a  farm  for  al)out 
three  years.  The  first  notice  of  Roger  Sherman  on  the  town  records 
of  Xew^  Milford  is  Feb.  6,  1744.  He  became  a  large  land  owner 
and  was  very  prominent  in  all  the  town  affairs,  a  deacon  in  the 
church,  and  clerk  and  treasurer  of  the  Eccl.  Society.  He  and  his 
brother  also  had  a  general  store,  and  he  lived  very  nearly  on  the  site 
of  the  present  Town  Hall,  which  in  later  years  has  been  named 
"Roger  Sherman  Hall."  The  old  store  building  is  said  to  be  still 
in  existence. 

He  was  a  very  industrious  and  studious  man.  Tn  1745  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  appointed  him  a  County  Surveyor  of  Xew  Haven 
County,  which  then  included  Xew  Milford;  this  office  was  jiecuniari- 
ly  of  more  value  in  those  days  than  it  has  been  in  later  years,  for 
one  of  his  surveys  he  received  nearly  84  pounds ;  many  of  the  ]:>lans 
and  maps  of  his  surveys  are  to  be  found  in  the  Xew  Milford  Land 
Records  made  bv  him  in  his  own  hand. 

Soon  after  the  formation  of  Litchfield  County  in  1751  he  studied 
law,  and  in  1757,  three  years  after  his  admission  to  the  bar.  he  was 
appointed  County  Judge,  and  a  Judge  of  the  Quorum.  He  was 
also  a  representative  to  the  General  .\ssembly  several  sessions.  Re- 
moving to  Xew  Haven  in  1761.  he  was  chosen  the  Governor's  as- 
sistant, and  also  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  which  office  he 
held  twenty-three  years. 

He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  first  Continental  Congress 
which  met  September  5th,  1774  in  Xew  York,  and  cimtinued  a 
member  of  Congress  for  nineteen  years,  the  last  two  being  in  the 
Senate,  of  which  he  was  a  member  at  the  time  of  his  death,  July 

^2,^  1793- 


174  LITCIIFIKI.D   COUNTY    BKXCII   AND    BAR 

As  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  he  was  one  of  the 
committee  to  draft  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  he  sign- 
ed on  July  4,  1776. 

Thomas  Jetiferson  says  of  this  distinguished  statesman,  "I  served 
with  him  in  the  old  Congress  in  the  years  1775  and  1776.  He  was 
a  very  able  and  log'ical  debater  in  that  body,  steady  in  the  principles 
of  the  Revolution,  always  at  the  post  of  duty,  much  employed  in 
the  business  of  the  committees,  and,  particularly,  was  of  the  com- 
mittee with  Dr.  Franklin,  Air.  J.  Adams,  Air.  Livingston  and  my- 
self for  ])re])aring  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  I  had  a  very 
great  respect  for  him." 

John  Adams  also  wrote,  "Destitute  of  all  literary  and  scientific 
education,  but  such  as  he  acquired  by  his  own  exertions,  he  was 
one  of  the  most  sensiljle  men  in  the  world.  The  clearest  head  and 
steadiest  heart.  He  was  one  of  the  soundest  and  strongest  pillars 
of  the  Revolution." 

Chief  Justice  Ellsworth  said  that  he  made  Air.  Sherman  the 
model  of  his  youth. 

'J'he  lionnr  and  fame  of  Roger  Sherman  does  not  rest  entirely 
upon  his  being  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  In 
the  early  formation  of  this  government,  he  took  an  active  and  im- 
portant part.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Convention  which  framed 
the  ConsiiUition  of  the  L'nited  States,  and  it  was  undoubtedly  due 
to  his  wise  and  sagacious  counsel  and  cool  impartial  judgment,  that 
the  Convention  was  held  together  until  the  great  work  was  ac- 
coniplished.  Aery  many  of  its  peculiar  provisions,  which  are  now 
considered  so  important,  originated  with  him.  This  compilation 
cannot  go  into  the  history  of  the  Convention  in  detail,  but  those 
wishing-  fiu'ther  light  on  the  subject  of  the  part  taken  in  it  by 
Roger  Sherman,  will  do  well  to  consult  Hollister's  Histor}'  of  Con- 
necticut, where  it  is  discussed  at  length. 

A  competent  authority  says,  that  "he  is  the  only  man  who  signed 
four  important  fundemental  documents  of  our  government,  viz : 
The  Articles  of  Association  in  1774  ;  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
in  1776,  which  he  assisted  in  drafting;  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion in  1778,  and  the  Federal  Constitutidu  in  1788. 

OIJN'KR  AVOI.COTT. 

Tile  other  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  whom 
Litchfield  County  is  interested,  w-as  Oliver  Wolcott,  who  was  the 
first  sheriff  of  the  County  upon  its  organization  in  1751. 

The  following  taken  from  Kilbourn's  History  of  Litchfield  is  a 
pretty  concise  sketch  of  this  distinguished  man. 

"The  Honorable  Oliver  Wolcott,  son  of  His  Excellency,  the 
Hon.  Roger  Wolcott,  Governor  and  Chief  Justice  of  Connecticut, 
was  born  in  Windsor,  December  20,  1726,  and  was  graduated  at 
Yale  College  in  1745.     In  early  manhood  he  commanded  a  company 


Gkx.  Oi.ivkr  Wor.coTT. 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  I75 

of  volunteers  in  the  Northern  Ami}',  in  the  war  against  the  French. 
Having  pursued  the  usual  course  of  medical  studies,  he  established 
himself  as  a  physician  in  Goshen,  and  was  there  at  the  date  of  the 
organization  of  the  County  of  Litchfield,  October,  175 1.  The 
Legislature  appointed  him  the  first  High  SherifT  of  the  new  County, 
and  he  immediately  took  up  his  abode  in  this  village,  and  con- 
tinued to  reside  here  until  his  decease,  a  period  of  forty-six  years. 
In  1752  he  erected  the  "Wolcott  House"  in  South  street,  where  dur- 
ing the  Revolutionary  War,  King  George's  leaden  statue  was  melted 
into  bullets,  to  be  fired  at  his  own  troops. 

With  a  CDmmanding  personal  appearance,  dignified  manners, 
a  clear  and  cultivated  intellect,  and  a  character  for  integrity  far 
above  the  reach  of  suspicion,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he 
became  a  favorite  of  the  people  with  whom  his  lot  w^as  cast.  Besides 
holding  the  office  of  Sheriff  for  over  twenty  years,  he  was  chosen 
a  Representative  to  the  Legislature  five  times  between  the  years 
1764  and  1770,  inclusive;  a  member  of  the  Council  or  Upper  House 
from  177 1  to  1786.  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Probate  for  the  District 
of  Litchfield  from  1772  to  1795  :  Jtidge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  from  1773  to  1786;  and  member  of  the  Continental  Congress 
from  1775  to  1784  (except  two  }ears ).  He  was  one  of  that  memor- 
able band  of  patriots  and  sages  who.  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  affixed 
their  names  to  the  T^eclaration  of  Independence.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  Judge  Wolcott  was  commissioned  as 
a  Brigadier  General,  and  Congress  appointed  him  a  Commissioner 
on  Indian  .\fi:'airs  for  the  Xorthcrn  DcpartuKMit,  with  General 
Schuyler  and  others.  In  ■May,  1779,  he  was  elected  by  the  Legisla- 
ture and  commissioned  by  Governor  Tnunlnill  as  Major  General 
of  the  Militia  of  Connecticut,  to  succeed  General  James  \\'adsworth, 
resigned.  In  these  ini])ortant  and  responsible  stations,  he  rendered 
the  country  essential  service.  On  the  field,  in  the  camp,  at  the 
rendezvous,  in  the  department  of  the  Commissary  of  v^upplies — In 
fact,  wherever  he  could  render  himself  useful — he  was  found,  ever 
prompt  in  planning  and  efficient  in  executing.  At  the  same  time 
he  was  an  active  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safetv ;  and,  when 
at  home,  was  equally  zealous  and  conspicuous  in  the  local  attairs 
of  the  town — officiating  as  Moderator,  Selectman,  Committeeman, 
etc.  Indeed,  no  man  in  the  v'^tate,  at  this  period,  discharged  so  many 
and  varied  pu])lic  duties.  A  considerable  share  of  the  reputation 
which  Connecticut  required  for  promptness  in  furnishing  men  and 
means  for  the  army,  is  due  to  General  Wolcott.  Certainly,  to  no 
other  individual  in  the  western  counties  could  Governor  Trumbull 
or  General  Washingt(in  appeal  for  aid,  with  the  certainty  of  suc- 
cess, as  to  him. 

In   1786.   he  was  elected  to  the  office  of  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  the  State,  and  was  annuall}'  re-elected  for  a  period  of  ten  years 
In   ]\Iay,    1796,   he   was   chosen    Governor,    to   which   distinguished 


176  I.liXllFilvLL)   COLXTY    iilvXClL   AXD    L'.AR 

position  he  was  again  elevated  at  the  annual  election  in  1797.  He 
was  now  seventy  years  of  age.  His  naturally  robust  constitution 
began  to  feel  the  weight  of  care  and  responsibility  which  had  been 
so  long  pressing  upon  it.  He  departed  this  life  at  his  residence  in 
Litchfield,  December  i,  1797,  aged  71  years. 

Joel  I'.arlow,  in  his  great  national  poem,  Tlic  Colimibiad,  thus 
refers  to  his  zeal  and  eftdrts  in  the  cause  of  Independence; 

"Bold  W'OLCOTT  urged  the  all-important  cause. 
With  steadv  hand  the  solemn  scene  he  draws  ; 
Undaunted  firnmess  with  his  wisdom  joined. 
Nor  kings  nor  worlds  could  warp  his  steadfast  mind." 

Governor  (  )livcr  ^^\llcott  ^vas  of  and  had  a  ver_\-  distinguished 
family.  His  son,  (Miver,  Jr.,  was  Secretary  of  the  United  States 
Treasur^■  under  President  George  Washington,  and  Governor  of 
this  State  for  ten  years.  Another  son,  Frederick,  was  clerk  of 
County  and  Superior  Courts  for  years,  and  the  founder  of  the 
village  of  Wolcottville,  now  the  business  portion  of  Torrington. 
One  of  his  daughters  married  Hon.  AA'illiam  ^Moseley,  AT.  C,  of 
Hartford,  and  another  marrietl  Lieutenant-Governor  Goodrich,  of 
1 lartford. 

His  sister,  Ursula  Wolcott,  married  Governor  Alatthew  Gris- 
wold,  and  was  the  mother  of  Governor  Roger  Griswold.  Thus 
her  father,  brother,  husband,  son.  and  nephew  were  all  governors 
of  Connecticut,  a  fact  which  cannot  ])robabl_\-  lie  said  of  any  other 
ladv  wlio  has  lived  in  the  State  or  the   United  States. 


THE  COUNTY  JAIL 

The  history  of  the  legal  matters  of  the  County  would  be  in- 
complete without  a  reference  to  the  County  Jail.  This  institution 
is  situated  on  one  of  the  most  prominent  sites  in  Litchfield  at  the 
corner  of  North  and  \\'est  streets.  The  original  jail  was  located 
on  the  brow  of  East  Hill,  on  the  exact  spot  now  occupied  by  the 
Center  school  house.  At  the  excavation  of  the  ground  for  the 
cellar  for  the  school  house  some  of  the  original  foundation  work 
was  discovered,  and  in  some  of  the  stone  work  were  found  staples 
and  rings  indicating"  that  occasionally  a  ])risoner  might  have  been 
cliaincfl  up.  It  is  said  to  have  been  a  crude,  but  strongly  built 
structure  of  hewn  logs.  Adjoining  it  a  large  old-fashioned  liouse 
was  erected  in  which  the  jailer  lived  and  kept  a  hotel,  the  prison 
being  in  the  rear.  This  building  appears  to  have  been  1)uilt  in 
1786,  at  a  cost  of  about  nine  lumdred  pounds,  sterling. 


HISTORICAL   NOTKS  I 


// 


The  front  ])art  of  the  i)resfiit  jail  was  erected  in  1810-11.  at 
an  exi)ense  of  $11,245.78.  and  was  huilt  of  hrick,  which  were  nKuie 
of  clay  dng-  on  the  road  between  Torrington  and  Litchfield,  iust 
east  of  "Seymour's  meadow."  The  bricks  were  ^'erv  hard  antl 
builders  have  said  that  it  was  much  easier  to  dig  through  llie 
granite  foundations  than  through  the  brick. 

A  woioden  building  for  a  kitchen  was  afterwards  added  on 
the  northern  side,  and  the  present  arrangement  of  cells  in  the 
middle  ])nilding  was  made  about  sixty  }ears  ago. 

In  1895.  the  accommodations  not  i)roving  adequate,  a  county 
meeting  was  held  and  an  addition  ordered  to  be  constructed  on 
the  west  end  of  the  original  building,  which  was  done  at  a  cost 
of  about  $25,000.00.  The  old  ])art  had  cells  for  seventeen  inmates 
and  this  addition  ])rovided  cell  rtx^m  for  twenty-eight,  with  cagt^ 
for  five  more,  with  washroom,  bathroom  and  other  needed  ac- 
commodations. It  is  now  heated  b\'  steam  and  furnished  with 
city  water,  and  is  lighted  with  gas  from  its  own  i>ri\ate  ])lant. 

In  the  early  days  the  kee])ing"  of  the  prisoners  \\as  let  tmt  to 
the  highest  bidder  and  the  kee])er  (now  called  the  jailer)  made 
\vhat  he  could  out  of  the  ])rison  work  and  also  kei:)t  a  hotel  in 
the  building.  This  system  prevailed  until  about  i8()5,  when  the 
sheriff,  as  one  of  the  ])rerogatives  of  his  office  took  ]>ossession  and 
ran  the  institution  himself.  The  i)rice  allowed  for  board  of  |)ris- 
oners  has  varied  :  at  the  jn'cseni  time  it  being  $2.25  per  week.  i)aid 
by  the  State. 

One  of  the  large  rooms  in  the  third  story  was  used  as  a  public 
liall.  The  Ma.sons  and  other  societies  used  it  for  their  meetings 
and  at  other  times  it  was  used  as  a  schoolroom.  The  compiler  of 
these  sketches  has  attended  school  there. 

A  large  workshop  is  located  in  the  second  stor\'  of  the  new  ])art. 
in  which  manv  of  the  itrisoners  are  emplo_\ed  caning  chair  seats, 
manufacturing  brooms,  and  such  other  employments  as  is  allowed 
to  prison  labor. 

A  large  elm  tree,  seen  in  the  cut  at  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
jail  \ard.  is  known  as  the  "  \\  hijjping  post  elm."  on  which  formerly 
prisoners  were  i)nblicl_\-  whipped  :  the  last  whipping  (occurred  about 
seventy-five  years  ago. 


ICaiu  B»£ljonl 


THE  LITCHFIELD 


LAW  SCHOOL 


CATALOGUE 

OF 

SCHOLARS 


INTERESTING  MEMORANDA 


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LAW  SCIIOOIv  l8l 


THE  LITCHFIELD  LAW  SCHOOL. 

The  following'  article  appeared  originally  in  the  February 
(1901)  number  of  TJic  Laiv  Notes,  published  by  The  Edward 
Thomson  Co.,  of  Xorthport,  L.  L  It  was  written  by  Charles  C. 
Aloore,  Esq.,  a  native  of  Winchester,  and  a  former  member  of 
this  bar,  now  one  of  the  editors  of  the  American  and  English 
Encyclopedia  of  Law,  pu1:)lished  by  the  above-named  company. 
1'he  article  has  been  slightly  abridged  for  this  work.  In  its  prepar- 
ation Mr.  Moore  was  largely  aided  by  the  late  Chief  Justice  Charles 
J:.  Andrews  : 

"  One  who  Unjks  through  the  records  of  the  town  meetings  of 
Litchfield  from  1765  to  1775  will  find  that  there  were  discussions 
on  the  Stamp  Act,  the  Boston  Port  r)ill,  and  other  acts  of  Parlia- 
mentary aggression,  as  clear  and  well  defined  as  the  debates  in 
that  town  meeting-  where  Samuel  Adams  and  Harrison  Grav  (_)tis 
were  the  principal  si)eakers.  The  child  Libert}'  would  not  have 
been  born  in  the  Pjoston  town  meeting  had  not  the  Litchfield  town 
meeting  and  other  like  town  meetings  throughout  the  colonies 
I»repared  the  atmosphere  in  which  alone  that  child  could  breathe. 
Litchfield  was  the  i)rincipal  station  on  the  highwa_\'  from  Hart- 
ford to  the  Hudson ;  and  a  depot  for  military  stores,  a  workshop, 
and  a  i)rovision  storehouse  for  the  Continental  Army  were  there 
established  during  the  Re\'olution.  Man\'  distinguished  royalist 
l)risoners  were  sent  there,  and  a  military  atmosphere  pervaded 
the  place.  General  Washington  was  a  freriuent  visitor,  and  so 
were  other  general  ollicers  of  the  American  forces,  including 
Lafayette,  who,  when  he  visited  the  L'nited  States  in  1824,  went 
to  Litchfield  to  renew  old  memories  with  some  of  his  former 
conu-ades  in  arms.  The  leaden  statue  of  King-  George  the  Third 
which  stood  on  the  Battery  in  New  York  was  conve\ed  to  Litch- 
field, and  in  an  orchard  in  the  rear  of  the  Wolcott  house  it  was 
melted  into  bullets  for  the  patriot  army.  All  through  the  struggle 
with  the  mother  country  Litchfield  was  a  hotbed  of  patriotism,  and 
when  the  first  law  school  in  America  commenced  its  regular  sys- 
tematic course  of  instruction  there  in  17S4,  the  ambitious  village 
had  among  its  citizens  numerous  men  of  exceptional  intelligence 
and  culture.  One  of  them  was  Andrew  Adams,  who  had  been  a 
niember  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  was  afterward  a  judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  i^QlLver  Wolcott  was  there.  He  also  had 
been  a  member  of  the  Congress,  had  signed  the  iJeclaration  of  In- 
dependence, and  was  afterward  Governor  of  the  State.  Ephraim 
Kirby,  who  a  few  years  later  pul^lished  the  first  volume  of  law 
re[X)rts  ever  published  in  America,  Major  Seymour,  who  had  com- 
manded a  rcgment  at  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  ;  Benjamin  Tall- 


l82  T.lTCTrFH'IJ)  COUNTY   HK.NCll    AND   )',AR 

niadg-e,  perliai).s  the  most  noted  cavalry  commander  of  tlie  Revolu- 
tion;  Julius  Deming-.  a  very  prominent  and  successful  merchant 
and  financier,  and  many  others  of  like  character  were  residing  in 
the   town.   ^]nt<>  this   community   in  the   year    1778   came  Tapping 

VKeeve.  a.  young  lawyer  just  admitted  to  the  bar.  to  settle  in 
the  ])ractice  of  his  profession.  Born  in  Southold.  Long  Island, 
ill  1744,  the  son  of  Rev.  Abner  Reeve,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman, 
lie  was  graduated  at  I'rinceton  College  in  1763,  and  was  immediately 
ap])ointed  teacher  in  a  gramniar  school  in  connection  with  the 
college.  ]n  that  station  and  as  a  tutor  in  the  college  itself  he 
passed  seven  years.  He  then  came  to  Connecticut  to  study  law, 
entering  the  oihce  of  Judge  Root,  who  was  then  a  practicing 
lawyer  in  Hartford,  and  some  years  later  a  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  From  Hartford  he  came  to  Litchfield.  He  had  just  pre- 
viously married  Sally  Burr,  daughter  of  President  Burr  of  Prince- 
ton, and  sister  of  Aaron  Burr.  '  Until  the  conclusion  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War  there  was  but  very  little  civil  business  done  in  the 
county  ait  ]vitchfield,  and  ]\lr.  Reeve  betook  himself  to  giving  in- 
struction to  voung  gentlemen  who  looked  forward  to  the:  legal 
profession  for  support  and  advancement  when  (piieter  times  should 
come.  This  emi)loyment  tended  greatly  to  enlarge  and  improve 
his  stock  of  legal  learning,  and  led  the  w-ay   for  him  to  begin   in 

\1784  a  systematic  course  of  instruction  in  the  law  and  to  regular 

1'  classes.  The  Law  School  dates  from  that  year.  It  continued  in 
»  successful  o]X'rati()n  and  with  amnial  g-raduating  classes  until  1833. 
The  catalogue  contains  the  names  of  one  thousand  and  fifteen 
young  men  who  were  prepared  for  the  bar  subsequent  to  the  year 
1798,  mo.st  of  whom  were  admitted  to  the  practice  in  the  court  at 
Litchfield.  The  list  of  students  pv'un-  to  that  date  is  imperfect, 
but  there  are  known  to  have  been  at  least  two  hundred  and  ten. 
I\lore  tlian  two-thirds  of  the  students  registered  from  states  other 
than  Connecticut.  Maine  sent  four,  New  Ham]:)shire  fifteen,  Ver- 
mont twent\-seven,  Massachusetts  ninety-ifour,  Rhode  Island 
twenty-two,  New  York  one  hundred  and  t\\cnt\-four.  New  Jersey 
eleven,  ]\Mnisylvvania  thirty,  Delaware  eighteen,  Maryland  thirty- 
nine,  Virginia  twenty-one.  North  Carolina  twenty.  South  Caro- 
lina fortv-five.  Georgia  sixity-nine,  Ohio  four,  Indiana.  Mississippi 
and  Tennessee  each  one,  Kentucky  nine,  Alal>ama  three,  and  Louisi- 
ana seven.  There  were  four  from  the  District  of  Columbia  and 
one  from  Calcutta.  The  greatest  number  who  entered  in  any 
single  year  was  fifty-four  in   1813. 

"  Lawyers  now  living  in  the  original  states  will  recognize  the 
names  of  manv  men  conspicuous  in  the  juridical  annals  of  their 
state.  Aaron  Hurr  studied  law  at  Litchfield.  John  C.  Calhoun 
entered  the  Law  School  in  1805;  only  a  few  rods  from  the  school 
building  was  the  house  where  Harriet  lieecher  Stowe  was  born 
in    1811,   and   Henrv   Ward    r.eecher   in    1813;   and   a    short   hour's 


LAW  SCHOOL  183 

walk  would  have  brou!:i-ht  the  yoiino-  Southerner  lo  the  spot  where 
]ohn  I-Jrcnvn  was  born  in  1800,  in  the  adjoining  town  of  Torrington. 
Two  of  the  graduates  became  judg-es  of  the  Su]M-enie  Court  of  the 
United  vStates— Henry  J5aldwin  and  Levi  \\'oodbur\- ;  fifteen  United 
States  Senators,  fifty  members  of  Congress,  five  meml)ers  of  the 
United  Sta-tes  Cabinet,  ten  governors  of  states,  forty-four  judges 
of  state  and  inferior  United  States  courts,  and  seven  foreign  minis- 
ters. Georg-ia  is  especially  well  represented.  Among  the  names  of 
judges  of  that  State  we  notice  Eugenius  A.  \esbit,  who  wrote 
the  elegant  dissertation  in  Mitchum  r.  State.  11  Ga.  615.  on  the 
])rivilege  and  dutv  of  counsel  in  arguing  a  case  to  a  jury,  in  con- 
nection with  the  proper  limitations  of  the  freedom  of  debate — an 
oi)inion  cojiied  almost  verbatim  in  Tucker  v.  Henniker,  41  X.  H. 
317,  with  an  omission  of  quotation  marks  so  singular  and  fiagrant 
as  to  have  occasioned  comment  b\-  the  ])rofe?sion 

"  The  course  of  instruction  was  completed  in  fourteen  months, 
including  two  vacations  of  four  weeks  each,  one  in  the  spring, 
the  other  in  the  autunuL  Xo  student  could  enter  for  a  shorter 
period  than  three  months.  The  terms  of  in^lructic  n  were  (in  1828) 
Sioo  for  the  first  year  and  $60  for  the  second,  ])aya]jle  either  in 
advance   or  at  the  end  of  the  _\car. 

"  In  the  lil)rary  for  the  Law  School  at  \'ale  University  ma_\  be 
foiuid  several  bound  volumes  of  manuscript  which  apparently  con- 
tain the  entire  lectures  of  Judge  Reeve.  They  are  in  the  hand- 
writing of  his  son,  Aaron  I'lu^r  Ree\e.  lUit  n'arginal  reference 
iriterlineations  in  his  own  hand  make  it  certain  that  these  volumes 
have  all  l)een  revised  by  Jndge  Reeve  himself.  The  tradition  is  that 
they  are  the  manuscripts  which  he  iLscd  in. his  lectures  during  the 
last  years  that  he  taught.  An  inspection  of  these  volumes  shows 
that  the  course  of  instruction  g^iven  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School 
covered  the  entire  body  of  the  law.  They  speak  of  the  law  gener- 
allv — in  reference  to  the  sources  whence  it  is  derived,  as  customs 
and  statutes,  with  the  rules  for  the  ap|)lication  and  interpretation  of 
each.  Then  follows  Real  Estate,  Rights  of  Persons,  Rights  of 
'Thing.s,_CA3ntracts,  Torts.  Evidence.  Pleading,  Crimes,  and  ivrpiity. 
'  And  each  of  these  general  subjects  is  treated  imder  various  sub- 
sidiary topics,  so  as  to  make  the  matter  intelligible  and  atTor<l  the 
student  a  correct  and  adequate  idea  of,  and  basis  for,  the  work  he 
\\dll  be  called  upon  to  perform  in  the  practice  of  his  profession. 
Judge  Reeve  conducted  the  school  alone  until  1798.  wdien,  having 
been  elected  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  he  associated  James 
Gould  with  hiuL  They  had  the  joint  care  of  the  school  until 
1820,  when  Judge  Reeve  with(lre\\\  ^Nlr.  Gould  continued  the 
classes  until  1833,  being  asissted  during  the  last  year  by  Jabez 
W.  Huntington.  Judge  Reeve  remained  on  tlu  bench  until  he 
reached  the  limit  of  seventy  years  in  1815.  The  last  part  of  the 
term  he  was  chief  justice.     He  died  in    1823,  in  the  eightieth  year 


184  i.rrciiFii'.i.i)  covsTY  r.Kxcii  and  i;.\r 

of  his   life.     He  left  an  only   child,   Aaron   Ijiirr,   who   graduated 
at  Yale  in   1802.     Aaron  Burr  Reeve  married  Annabelle  Shedden, 
of  Richmond.  \^a.,  in  1808.    He  died  in  1809.    He  left  an  only  child, 
'J'apping-  Uurr  Reeve,  who  graduated  at  Yale,  but  died  unmarried 
in   1829,  and  thus  the  family  became  extinct.     Mr.   Gould  became 
^  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Connecticut,  and  was  the  author 
of.  the  celebrated  work  on  Pleading.     He  died  at  Litchfield  in  1838. 
The   course   of   instruction   at   the   school    must    liave   been    incom- 
parably more  exhaustive  than  would  be  possible  at  the  present  tlay, 
tor  the  obvious  reason  that  there  was  so  much  less  to  learn.'    In 
1784  there   were  no  printed   reports   of   decisions   of  any   court   in 
the  United  States.      Substantially  the  entire  body  of  the  law   was 
to  be   found  in  the  English  reports.     It  is  sai<l  tiiat  Judge   Gould 
had   systematically   digested    for   his    students    ""  every    ancient    and 
modern  o]:)inion.  whether  o\'erruled.  doubted,  or  in  any  way  quali- 
fied."     l)Ut  vast  bodies  of  law  of  which  the  modern   student  unist 
learn  something  were  unknown  to  the  curriculum  of  the  Litchfield 
L,aw   School,  and  manv  principles  latent  in  the  common  law  were 
just   beginning    to    be    developed.        Lord    Mansfield    resigned    his 
office  of  Chief  Justice  in  1788.  after  presiding  in  the  King's  Bench 
over  thirty  years.      Prior  to  his  time   the  greatest  imcertainty  had 
prevailed  on  (juestions  of  commercial  law.     "Mercantile  questions 
were  so  ignorantly  treated  when  they  came  into  Westminster  Plall," 
says  Lord  Cam])]jell  in  his  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices,  "  that  they 
were   usually   settled   by   private   arbitration   among   the   mercliants 
themselves."     There  were  no  treatises  on  the  subject  and  few  cases 
in  the  books  of  re]>orts.     Thus  in  Helyn  v.  Adamson.  3  Burr.  699, 
decided   in    1758.   it   was   first   distinctly   ruled   that  the    second   in- 
dorser  of  an  inland  bill  of  exchange  was  entitled  to  recover  from  the 
prior  indorser  upon  failure  of  payment  by  the  drawee,  without  mak- 
ing any  demand  on  or  intpiiry  after  the  drawer.     In  1770  it  was  held 
that   the    indorser   of   a   bill    of   exchange    is    discharged    if   he   re- 
ceives no  notice    of  a  refusal  to  accept  by  the  drawee.     (Blesard  v. 
Hirst,   5    Burr.   2670.)      And  not   until    1786.   in   Tindal   z'.   P-rown, 
I   Term  Rep.    167,   was   it  finally   determined  that  what   is   re.ison- 
able    notice    lo    an    indorser    of    non-]:)ayment    by    the    maker    of   a 
promissory  note,  or  acceptor  of  a  bill  of  exchange,   is  a  question 
of  law  and  not  of  fact.     Of  course  there  was  no  American  con- 
stitutional law  when  the  school  was  founded,  though  some  of  the 
states   had  already   adopted  constitutions.'    The   first  book  on   cor- 
poration law   was  that  of  Kytl.  pul)lished   in   London  in   1793.  but 
it  was   chiefly  made   up  of  authorities   and   ]irecedents   relatmg   to 
municipal    ct)rporations ;     and    Willcock    on    Corporations,    also    an 
J\nglish  treatise  was  still  more  limited  in   its  plan.     There  was  no 
.American  text-book  on  corporations  until  the  first  edition  of  Augell 
and  Ames  was  i)ublished  in   1831.     At  tiiat   time  the  need  of  such 
a  book  had  become  verv  urgent,  but  in  the  earl\-  vears  of  the  L,itch- 


JUDGE  JA:\IES  GOULD 

From  a  Cravon  now  owned  bv  Hon.  A.  T.  Roraback. 


LAW  SCHOOL  185 

field  Law  School  there  must  have  been  extremely  few  private 
Business  corporations  in  this  country.  Xot  until  Louisville,  etc., 
R  Co.  V.  Letson,  2  How.  (  U.  S. )  4(;7.  decided  in  1844,  did  cor- 
]K)rations  become  competent  to  sue  and  be  sued  as  "citizens"  of  a 
State,  regardless  of  the  citizenship  of  the  corporators.  A  "fellow 
servant"  was  a  total  stranger  in  legal  nomenclature :  Priestly  v. 
Fowler,  3  AL  &  W.  i,  was  decided  in  1837;  ^lurray  r.  Railroad 
Co., I  McMull.  (  S.  Car.)  385,  in  1841  ;  and  Farwell  z'.  Railroad 
Co.,  4  Met.  (Mass.)  4cj,  in  1842.  The  term  "contributory  negli- 
gence" had  not  been  coined:  Butterfield  z'.  Forrester,  11  East  60, 
was  decided  in  1809;  Davies  %'.  ]\lann,  10  M.  c^'  ^\^  54(),  in  1842, 
and  the  phrase  is  not  used  in  either  case.  Civil  actions  for  dam- 
ages for  death  by  wrongful  act  were  not  maintainable.  The  law 
of  insurance  was  virtually  the  creation  of  Lord  Mansfield,  ijut  the 
volume  of  insurance  law  was  comi)arati\'ely  insignificant  for  several 
decades.  (  )n  the  other  hand,  there  was  an  abunchince  of  real  estate 
law  and  of  law  concerning  executors  and  administrators  and  trustees 
generallw  In  those  davs  the  executor  dc  son  tovt  was  more  in 
evidence  than  at  ])resent.  although  even  now  he  has  so  much  vitality 
in  some  jurisdictions  that  it  would  not  l)e  \\ise  for  the  practioner 
to  characterize  him  as  judge  Lum])kin  did  in  Shotwell  v.  Rowell. 
30  (ja.  55y.  "dc  son  fiddlestick!"  and  cr_\',  "Away  with  him!"  The 
princii^les  of  e(|uit\-  jurisprudence  liad  secured  a  firm  footing,  and 
at  this  (lay  the_\-  are  administered  in  the  Federal  courts  a.s  they 
were  ex])ounded  in  the  High  Court  of  Chancery  in  England  when 
the  Constitution  was  adopted  in  1789.  judge  Gould  was  a  n:aster 
Vpf  the  common-law  sxstem  of  pleading,  which  was  extolled  by  some 
\ni  its  eulogists  as  the  perfection  of  human  reason.  During  the 
period  of  the  Law  School  the  noble  science  of  ])leading  became 
burdened  with  so  many  refinements  and  fictions  that  it  fell  into 
•  disrepute  ;  the  celebrated  Rules  of  Hilary  Term  were  adopted  in 
1834.  and  we  have  since  substituted  very  generally  for  the  techni- 
calities of  the  common-law  system  what  we  term  a  plain  and  con- 
cise statement  of  causes  of  action  and  of  defenses,  administering 
law  and  e((uity  in  one  suit,  and  sometimes  peradventure  evolving 
a  judgment  as  incongruous  as  the  one  examined  in  Bennett  v.  But- 
terworth,,  11  How.  ( U.  S. )  669,  or  exhibiting  the  chaos  of  plead- 
ings and  ])roceedings  tabulated  by  the  reporter  in  Randon  r.  Toby, 
IT  How.  {U.  S.)  493.  Speaking  of  the  reformed  ])rocedure,  how 
many  lawyers  are  aware  that  the  chief  merit  of  the  Code  system  was 
recognized  and  recommended  for  adoption  by  the  preceptor  of 
j  udge  Reeve,  founder  of  the  Litchfield  Law  School  ?  Tlie  first 
volume  of  Root's  Connecticut  Reports  was  published  in  1798.  The 
reporter  was  Jesse  Root,  afterward,  as  above  stated,  a  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  with  whom  Tapping  Reeve  had  studied  law 
in  Hartford.  We  will  close  with  a  quotation  from  the  introduction 
to   that   volume:    "Are    not   the   courts    of   chancerv    in    this    State 


l86  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BE^NCH  AND  BAR 

borrowed  from  a  foreign  jurisdiction,  which  grew  out  of  the  ig-no- 
rance  and  barl^arisni  of  the  law- judges  at  a  certain  period  in  that 
country  from  whence  borrowed?  And  would  it  not  be  as  safe  for 
the  people  to  invest  the  courts  of  law  with  the  power  of  deciding 
all  questions  and  of  giving  relief  in  all  cases  according  to  the  rules 
established  in  chancery,  as  it  is  to  trust  those  same  judges  as  chan- 
cellors to  do  it?  Those  rules  might  be  considered  as  a  part  of 
the  law,  and  the  remedy  be  made  much  more  concise  and  eiTeccual. 
Further,  would  not  this  remedy  great  inconveniences  and  save  much 
expense  to  suitors,  who  are  frequently  turned  round  at  law  to  seek 
a  remedy  in  chancery,  and  as  often  turned  round  in  chancery  be- 
cause they  have  adequate  remedy  at  law?  These  are  serious 
evils  and  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  exist  in  the  jurisprudence  of 
a  country  famed  for  liberty  and  justice,  and  which  can  be  remedied 
only  by  the  interposition  of  the  legislature.'  " 

THE  LITCHFIELD  LAW  SCHOOL. 

At  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Story  Association,  of  Cambridge 
Law  School  (Mass.)  in  185 1,  the  following  reference  was  made 
to  the  Litchfield  Law  School : 

Judge  Kent  gave  the  sentiment : 

"  The  first-born  of  the  law  schools  of  this  country — the  Litch- 
field Law  School.  The  Boston  Bar  exhiliits  its  rich  and  ripened 
fruits.     By  them  we  may  judge  of  the  tree  and  declare  it  good." 

Hon.  Charles  G.  Loring,  of  the  class  of  1813,  reponded : 

**  I  do  not  remember,"  he  said,  "  to  have  ever  been  more  forcibly 
reminded  of  my  younger  days,  than  when  looking  around  on  my 
}0ung  friends  in  the  midst  of  whom  I  stand.  It  recalls  the  time 
when  I,  too,  was  a  student  among  numerous  fellow  students.  It 
will,  probably,  be  news  to  them  and  many  others  here,  that  thirty- 
eight  }ears  ago,  which  to  many  here  seems  a  remote  antiquity,  there 
existed  an  extensive  law  school  in  the  vState  of  Connecticut,  at  which 
more  than  sixty  students  from  all  ])arts  of  the  country  were  as- 
sembled— ^ever\-  State  then  in  the  l^ni(in,  being  tliere  repre- 
sented. I  joined  it  in  18 13,  when  it  was  at  its  -/enith,  and  the  only 
prominent  estal)lis]imcnt  of  the  kind  in  the  land. 

"The  recollection  is  as  fresh  as  the  events  of  yesterday,  of  our 
passing  along  the  broad  shaded  streets  of  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  the  villages  of  New  England,  with  our  inkstands  in  our 
hands,  and  our  portfolios  under  our  arms,  to  the  lecture  room  of 
Judge  Gould — the  last  of  the  Romans,  of  Common  Law  Lawyers ; 
the  impersonation  of  its  spirit  and  genius.  It  was,  indeed,  in  his 
eyes,  the  jjcrfection  of  human  reason,  by  which  he  measured  every 
principle  and  rule  of  action,  and  almost  every  sentiment. 


I, AW  SCHOOL  187 

"  Why.  sirs,  his  hii^hest  visions  of  poetry  seemed  to  be_  in  the 
refinement  of  special  pleadings  ;  and  to  him  a  noti  scquitcr  in  logic 
was  an  offense  deserving,  at  the  least,  fine  and  imprisonment,  and 
a  repetition  of  it.  transportation  for  life.  He  was  an  admirable 
]\nglish  scholar  ;  every  word  was  pure  English,  undefiled  and  every 
sentence  fell  from  his  lips  perfectly  finished,  as  clear,  transparent 
and  ]>enetrating  as  light,  and  every  rule  and  principle  as  exactly 
defined  and  limited  as  the  outline  of  a  building  against  the  sky. 
J'Vom  him  we  obtained  clear,  well-defined  and  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  Common  Law.  and  learned  that  allegiance  to  it  was  the 
chief  duty  of  man,  and  the  iH)\ver  of  enforcing  it  upon  others,  his 
liighest  attainment.  Vrum  his  lecture  room  we  passed  to  that  of 
ihc  venerable  Judge  Reeve,  shaded  by  an  aged  elm,  fit  emblem  of 
iiimself.  He  was,  indeed,  a  most  venerable  man.  in  character  and 
a])pearance.  his  thick,  gray  hair  parted  and  falling  in  profusion  upon 
his  shoulders,  his  voice  only  a  loud  whisper,  but  distinctly  heard 
b\    his  earnestly,  attentixc  ])U])ils. 

"He,  too,  was  full  <if  legal  learning,  but  invested  the  law  with 
all  the  genial  enthusiasm  and  generous  feelings  and  noble  sentiments 
(y\  a  large  heart  at  the  age  of  eighty,  and  descanted  to  us  with  a 
glowing  elocjuence  upon  the  sacredness  and  majesty  of  the  law. 
Jle  was  distinguished,  sirs,  by  that  appreciation  of  the  gentler  sex 
which  never  fails  to  mark  the  true  man,  and  his  teachings  of  the 
law  in  reference  to  llieir  rights  and  the  domestic  relations,  had 
great  influence  in  elevating  and  refining  the  sentiments  of  the  young- 
men  who  were  privileged  to  hear  him.  As  illustrative  of  his  feel- 
ings and  manner  upon  this  subject,  allow  me  to  give  a  specimen, 
lie  was  discussing  the  legal  relations  of  married  women;  he  never 
called  them,  however,  by  so  inexpressible  a  name,  but  always  spoke 
of  them  as  'the  better  half  of  mankind,'  or  in  some  equally  just 
manner.  When  he  came  to  the  axiom  that  'a  married  woman 
lias  no  will  of  her  own,"  this,  he  said  was  a  maxim  of  great  the- 
oretical importance  for  the  preservation  of  the  sex  against  tlie 
undue  influence  or  coercion  of  the  husband;  but  although  it  was 
an  infiexible  maxim,  in  theory,  experience  taught  us  that  practically 
it  was  found  that  tlie\-  sometimes  had  wills  of  their  ow'.i — most 
J'.appilx   for   lis. 

"We  left  his  lecture  room,  sirs,  the  very  knight  errants  of  the 
law  burning  to  be  the  defenders  of  the  right  and  the  avengers  of 
the  wrong ;  and  he  is  wo  true  son  of  the  Litchfield  school  \vho  has 
ever  forgotten  that  lesson. 

"I  pro]X)se,  sirs,  the  memories  of  Judge  Reeve  and  Judge  Gould 
— among  the  first,  if  not  the  first  founders  of  a  National  Law 
School  in  the  United  States — who  have  laid  one  of  the  corner  stones 
in  the  foundation  of  true  American  patriotism,  loyalty  to  the  law." 


i88  i.T'i'nirTKT.D  (•()^^'T^■  r.r.xcir  and  r>.\R 

THE  FOLLOWING  LS  A  COPY  OF  A  STUDENT'S  LETTER. 

Litchfield,  October  28th,  1830. 
Dkar  FriivNd: — 

Having"  received  your  letter  just  as  I  was  on  tlie  wins;-  for  this 
place,  I  was  unable  to  answer  it  then  ;  but  avail  myself  of  these 
first  moments  of  calm  after  the  l)ustie  and  confusion  incident-  to  the 
settling  down  into  my  nest,  to  turn  mv  thoughts  to  that  bro;)d  in 
which  I  found  myself  when  my  eyes  were  first  o|:)ened  to  !c\^a!  Ii,i^hf, 
and  when  I  first  inhaled  the  legal  atmosphere  which  from  its  misti- 
ness gives  to  those  who  breath  it,  fat  least  so  I  presume)  the  well 
known  name  of  pclfv  fogs  (}ou  will  perceive  an  analogy  m  the 
derivation  of  this  word  to  that  of  htcus  a  non  hiccjido.  or  Pared  a 
non  parcendo)  &  from  which  like  yourself  I  have  absconded,  1)eing 
now  big  enough  to  take  care  of  myself. 

Really,  Ned,  since  my  arrival  I  have  been  as  busy  as  a  hen 
\\\{h  one  chick^I  have  l)een  obliged  to  furnish  my  room,  with 
whatever  I  need,  from  the  bellows  to  the  lamp  wick.  We  are 
obliged  to  board  licrc,  at  one  house  and  lodge  at  another.  They 
give  you  a  room,  with  bed  and  bestead,  et  tout  ca,  at  the  rate  of 
one  dollar  a  week  you  furnish  your  wood,  your  servant,  car[)et  if 
}ou  don't  wish  to  go  without,  lamps,  oil,  e^'c,  X'C. 

You  see  cK:  hear  no  more  of  the  family  than  if  you  were  the  sole 
occupant  of  the  premises. 

L'pon  your  return  from  breakfast  your  room  is  swept,  bed  made, 
things  set  to  rights,  as  if  done  by  magic,  you  never  see  how.  T 
have  a  fine  room  at  Parson  Jones',  who  is  very  obliging  and  would 
be  more  so  if  able,  and  T  board  at  Airs.  Reeve's,  a  very  agreeable, 
])leasant,  old  lady.  We  pay  her,  I  believe  two  dollars  and  a  half  a 
week.  Our  board  and  lodging  and  contingencies  will  run  us  up  to 
about  five  dollars  a  week,  which  1  think  is  pretty  well  on  to  the 
brogue  for  a  country  town.  And  this  is  independent  of  the  lectures. 
Judge  Gould  is  so  much  overcome  with  his  late  family  bereave- 
ment that  he  is  unable  to  lecture  himself.  His  son.  ho\,ever. 
delivers  them  in  his  stead.  As  far  as  T  can  judge  they  will  be  very 
vahiahlc.  in(le]:)endent  of  their  intrinsic  merit :  T  will  be  obliged  to 
write  up  at  least  three  reams  of  finel\'  ruled  foolcap.  The  lecture 
lasts  for  an  hour  and  a  quarter  each  day,  examinations  once  a  week. 
Litchfield  appears  to  be  a  very  pretty  place,  and  T  think  T  sha'l  like 
it  well.  I  attended  an  evening-  or  two  ago  an  exhibition  of  the 
young  ladies'  seminar\-  at  this  place  of  which  you  speak  in  your 
letter.  There  were  several  very  handsome  and  interesting  young 
demoiselles.  The  court  room  in  which  it  was  held  was  excessively 
crowded  and  two  or  three  fainted,  one  yomig  lady  upon  receiving 
her  premium.  At  one  end  of  the  room  men.  Ijoys  and  girls  were 
all  heaped  up  together,  and  ever  and  am  mi,  you   would  hear  some 


i,A\v  sciiooi^     ■  .  i8y 

sturdy  bum  resounding-  against  the  tloor,  its  luckless  owner  having 
incautiously  pushed  it  out  beyond  the  line  of  equilibrium. 

I  understand  from  Mrs.  Reeve  that  all  the  marriageable  young 
ladies  have  been  married  ofif,  and  that  diere  is  at  present  nothing 
but  young  fry  in  town,  consequently  that  it  will  not  be  as  gay  as 
usual.  The  young  ladies,  she  tells  me,  all  marry  law  students,  but 
as  it  will  take  two  or  three  years  for  the  young  crop  to  become 
fit  for  the  harvest,  you  need  apprehend  no  danger  of  my  throwing 
up  my  bachelorship. 

The  road  from  Poughkeepsie  here  is.  I  think,  the  most  tedious 
I  ever  travelled,  you  see  nothing  but  rocks  and  stones.  Cor.sider^ 
ing  the  roughness  of  the  country  and  the  scarcity  of  laud  I  am  not 
at  all  surjjrised  the  yankays  depend  for  their  livlihood  upon  their 
zclfs.  I  wish  I  had  it  in  my  power  to  exercise  a  watchful  care  over 
I),  as  you  have  enjoined  me.  "Ah  me!  forsooth,  he  is  a  sorry 
weight."  His  ]ia  I  suspect  is  afraid  of  some  siii^^itlar  iiiancurvrc 
on  his  part  and  dare  not  trust  him  from  his  paternal  eve.  He  did 
not  accompany  me,  as  in  all  ])robability  \'ou  know,  but  I  do  not  vet 
despair  of  his  coming.  In  such  ex])ectation  1  shall  nut  write  him, 
for  I  think  it  very  ])ossible  he  may  arrive  this  evening,  if  so  he 
shall  write  you  a  1'.  S.  He  and  his  father  had  not  full\-  considered 
the  subject  when  I  left. 

It  is  growing  dark  and  I  must  conclude  l>efore  tea  (for  I  ex- 
])ect  this  evening  to  be  very  busy  copxing  notes)  and  this  I  cannot 
do.  without  assuring  you  that  it  will  give  me  the  greatest  pleasure 
to  see  you  here.  I  have  a  double  bed.  1  will  give  you  half,  and 
as  long  as  Coont.  is  the  land  of  cakes  you  will  not  starve.  The 
excursion  will,  no  doul)t,  be  agreeable  and  advantageous  to  }()ur 
liealth.  You  can  come  by  the  way  of  Xew  Haven  or  Toughkecpsie. 
\Mien  you  write  to  the  olllce  remember  me  to  them  and  to  all  enquir- 
ing friends. 

Direct.  Litchfield,  C^jnnt. 

The  following  extracts  from  a  letter  written  Irv  Augustus  Hand, 
while  a  student  at  the  law  school,  will  further  illustrate  the  conduct 
of  the  institution  : 

'■  Litchfield,   Jan.   30th,    18J9. 
"Mv  DivAR  F.\Tin:R: — 

"  '■'■  *  Let  me  tell  you  how  T  spend  my  time.  T  rise  between 
7  and  8,  make  a  fire  and  scrub  for  ])reakfast,  from  thence  to  lecture, 
where  I  remain  until  between  10  and  ii.  Thence  to  my  room  and 
cojn'  lectures  till  5  p.  m.  (Save  dinner  time  at  1  p.  m. )  thence  to 
( ).  S.  Seymour's  otlice  with  whom  I  read  law  until  half  past  9  p.  ni., 
then  again  to  my  room,  write  till  between  12  and  i  o'clock,  then 
draw  on  my  night-cap  and  turn  in."  Exception — -Monday  we 
spend  from  6  to  ()  in  the  Law  School  Debating  Society,  over  which 


190  I,lTCHI'It;LD  COUNTY  BKNCH  AND  BAR 

T  have  the  honor — T  never  brag) .  Friday  at  3  p.  m.  attend  an  extra 
lecture  on  criminal  law,  and  also  hear  an  argument  in  the  "  ^>loot 
Court  "  and  decision  by  the  judge.  On  Saturday  at  2  p.  m.  attend 
a  severe  three  hours  examination  on  the  studies  of  the  week  by 
jabez  W.  Huntington,  Esq.  -\side  from  these  exceptions  the  first 
day  is  a  correct  specimen.  As  to  the  lectures  and  their  utility  I 
will  refer  you  to  the  preface  of  the  catalogue  mailed  with  thi?.  I 
can  only  say  that  their  daily  ])ractical  use  to  a  lawyer  can  only  be 
appreciated  by  those  who  have  enjoyed  them.  Without  any  doubt, 
they  give  the  same  talent — a  powerful  superiority.  The  whole 
is  comprise<l  in  between  2500  and  3000  pages.  (3f  these  T  have 
written  al)out  1200  and  1300  and  should  I  remain  here  till  May 
and  enjoy  my  ])resent  excellent  health  there  will  be  no  dilliculty  in 
copying  the  whole,  having  access  to  Seymour's  volumes  ( for  what 
I  do  not  take  in  the  office),  who  has  attended  two  courses  and  has 
them  complete.  This  is,  however,  business  between  ourselves  for 
these  lectures  are  secured  to  the  Judge,  being  the  labor  of  his  life 
in  the  same  manner  as  a  jjatent  right.  So  we  talk  less  and  write 
faster.  'J'his  Seymour  with  whom  I  study  is  the  son  of  the  sheriff 
of  the  county,  nephew  of  our  State  Senator,  a  graduate  of  Yale, 
a  bachelor  of  26  or  2^,  of  most  sterling  mind  antl  manners,  with  a 
brain  com])letely  identified  with  the  study  of  the  law  in  its  most 
theoretical  and  scientific  part.  From  a  natural  weakness  of  the 
eyes  he  does  not  allow  himself  to  study  evenings  and  therefore 
invited  me  to  read  to  him.  This  offer,  knowing  his  fame,  &c.,  I 
readih-  accepted,  his  ofUce  being  next  door  but  one  to  mine,  and  he 
being  altogether  such  a  man  as  "studies  learning  to  use  it."  We 
take  u])  the  title  in  a  lecture  and  progress  with  it  till  it  is  finished, 
reading  (about)  between  ten  and  twenty  pages  an  evening,  he 
giving  me  a  thorough  insight  into  it  as  we  proceed — allowing  u'c 
without  reserve,  to  tease  him  with  as  many  questions  as  I  please 
and  now  and  then  reading  a  report  of  some  cases  adapted  to  the 
subject.  J  before  the  lesson  he  examines  me  in  the  ])receding"  lesson 
from  memory.  '''  '•'  '"  The  law  here  is  a  study.  There  are  one 
or  two  lawyers  in  the  vicinity  who  make  4  or  5000  dollars  a  year. 
I  pass  every  (la\  1)\-  the  door  of  one  worth  about  $150,000.00.  about 
one-half  of  which  he  made  in  law.  This  "Huntington"  who  ex- 
amines is  a  l)acheUjr  rather  above  fort\'  who  studies,  thinks  and  talks 
law  sleeping  and  waking.  He  never  "  pettifoggs,"  but  pleads  in 
the  higher  courts  and  writes  opinions  for  other  lawyers  in  every 
section  of  the  country.  He  will  sometimes  become  so  animated  in 
discussing  a  (juestion  which  arises  on  the  examination,  that  he  can 
hardly  keep  his  seat.  Friday,  the  nth  inst.,  it  came  my  turn  for 
the  second  time  to  come  on  to  the  "  Moot  Court."  A  short  time 
after  my  achnission  my  name  came  on  opposed  to  Mr.  Halsted,  of 
N.  J.  (in  alphabetical  order),  who  was  an  old  student.  I  tried  to 
cross  the  Rubicon  but  like  a  poor,  stuck-in-the-mud  T  could  not  ford. 


LAW  SCHOOL  191 

Frightened  out  of  ni}-  wits,  surrounded  by  a  literary  fog-  in  the 
midst  of  ni\-  "nothing,""  I  quoted  from  an  author  (Swift)  witli 
whom  the  Judge  had  a  personal  quarrel,  this  with  being  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  question  fired  me.  This  time  I  resolved  to  re- 
trieve. A  most  intricate  question  on  the  doctrine  of  relation  and 
estoj^pel  was  handed  M.  Brown  of  X.  J.  and  myself  by  Sq.  San- 
ford  of  this  place.  The  next  day  we  had  a  very  learned  decision 
luckilv  in  my  favor.      *      *      * 

^'our  attectionate  son, 

Augustus  Hand 

THE  LAW  SCmjOL  BUILDINGS. 

The  pictuhe  of  the  Reeves  Law  School  building  appended  here, 
shows  it  as  now  (  1908 )  appears  after  the  restoration  as  far  as 
possible  to  its  original  condition.  'I'he  Litchfield  correspondent  of 
the  JVaterhury  ulmcricaii  describes  the  situation  as  follows: 

Litchfield.  Xov.  19 — Tapping  Reeve,  the  ftnnider  of  the  Litchfield 
Law  Schoijl.  famous  as  having  been  the  first  law  school  in  the 
L^nited  States,  was  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian  minister  and  was  born 
on  the  Sou-th  side  of  Long  Island.  He  was  educated  at  Princeton, 
where  he  graduated  in  I7'">3,  at  the  age  of  17  }ears.  For  seven 
}ears  he  remained  as  a  tutoj  at  Princeton,  then  came  to  Connecticut 
and  practiced  law  in  the  office  of  Judge  Root  of  Hartford  and  as 
soon  as  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  he  settled  in  Litchfiekf  about 
1772.  He  had  previously  married  Sally  Burr,  daughter  of  Presi- 
dent l^)urr  of  I'rinceton  College,  and  sister  of  Aaron  lUirr,  who 
studied  in  the  school,  and  who  was  a  frequent  visitor  in  his  familv. 

In  1782,  tlie  numl)er  of  students  who  \\'ished  to  study  in  Reeve's 
office  had  become  so  large,  that  he  built  the  small  house  shown 
in  the  ])icture.  in  the  corner  of  his  yard,  on  South  Street,  the  place 
now  owned  by  Charles  H.  WoodrulT  of  Xew  York  and  Litchfield, 
■j'o  this  .-school  came  students  from  all  ])arts  of  the  coimtry.  many 
of  the  men  who  gained  renown  in  the  practice  of  law  and  in  other 
I)rofessions,  being  graduates  of  this  school. 

Judge  Reeve  continued  to  use  this  building  until  his  death,  and 
in  1846  the  building  was  sold  to  Plenry  Ward,  who  ]>urchased  a  lot 
of  land  on  the  brow  of  West  Hill  and  placed  the  building  there, 
fitting  it  up  as  a  small  house.  In  1886  the  property  was  bought  by 
Mrs.  Mary  C.  Daniels  and  her  son.  Prof.  Charles  F.  Daniels  of 
Xew  York,  who  made  it  their  summer  home  for  many  years.  Prof. 
Daniels  died  a  few  years  before  his  mother  and  upon  Airs.  Daniel's 
death  it  became  necessar\-  to  sell  the  ])ropertv. 

D.  C  Kilbourn  began  planning  to  have  the  old  building  pre- 
served, and  to  that  end  a  committee  was  apponted  by  the  Litchfield 
County  Bar.  with  Mr.  Killx)urn  as  chairman.  He  went  before  the 
Legislature  at  its  session  of  1907  with  the  proposition  that  the  state 


192  i,n\iii'ii-;i,])  corxTv  I'.ivxcii  axj)  har 

buy  it  and  keep  it  as  state  property.  This  proposal  was,  however^ 
rejected.  Thereupon  the  executor  was  obUj^ed  to  sell  the  place  at 
auction,  and  Mr.  Kilbourn  bought  it  for  about  $2,700.  He  im- 
mediately began  restoring  the  old  part  and  to  do  this  he  had  the 
original  law  school  building  detached  from  the  additions  which  had 
been  put  on  by  ]\lr.  and  Airs.  Daniels. 

The  building  was  moved  to  the  extreme  west  end  of  the  lot  and 
has  been  restored  both  inside  and  out  as  far  as  possible  to  its 
original  appearance.  At  the  time  of  the  Ward  purchase  of  the 
house,  it  was  lathed  and  plastered.  This  has  been  taken  off,  leaving 
the  original  wide  pine  boards  with  which  it  was  ceiled,  which  still 
show  inkstains,  and  in  some  places  penciled  names.  One  of  the 
original  outside  doors  was  found  in  a  mutilated  condition,  and  this 
has  been  framed  into  the  wall,  and  forms  the  frame  of  a  large 
crayon  portrait  of  Judge  Reeve.  The  i»ld  small-paned  windows, 
which  appear  in  the  picture  are  the  same  as  of  old. 

When  taking  off  the  plastering  and  lath,  several  old  boards  were 
found  literally  covered  with  names  and  inscriptions,  done  by  jack- 
knife  artists  in  those  old  school  days,  when  human  nature  was  nuich 
the  same  as  now.  Many  of  these  names  are  to  be  found  in  the  cata- 
logue of  the  school  in  Mr.  Kilbourn's  possession.  Some  of  the 
names  are  W.  T.  Gould.  1818;  X.  Billings,  New  London;  IJoard- 
man,  1820;  William  Petit,  Marietta,  Ohio;  1810;  J.  B.  Skinner,  A. 
Bates,  Samuel  W.  Cheever.  F.  E.  P..  P.  McE.,  E.  P.  S.,  Jones,  (in 
monogram.  J 

An  interesting  (juestion  is  how  the  building  was  heated,  as  no 
trace  of  a  fireplace  was  found.  Did  thev  sit  in  the  room  with  no  fire, 
as  the  churches  of  those  days  were  unheated. 

It  is  Mr.  Kilbourn's  present  intention  to  make,  if  possible,  some 
arrangement  by  which  the  old  building  can  be  ke])t  as  an  interesting 
relic,  and  the  members  of  the  Litchfield  County  Bar  are  getting 
much  interested  to  have  this  done. 

It  should  be  understood,  in  this  connection,  that  the  picture  of 
what  has  been  called  "The  First  Law  School  of  America"  which 
has  a])peared  from  time  to  time  in  the  state  papers,  is  not  a  picture 
of  the  first  law  school  building,  but  of  the  second  one,  which  was 
built  by  Ju<lge  (Vould  later.  He  came  to  Litchfield  and  was  as- 
sociated with  Juilge  Iveeve  in  his  school,  and  after  Judge  Reeve's 
death  he  carried  on  the  school,  putting  u])  the  building  sometimes 
called  the  first  school  in  the  \ard  of  his  property,  now  the  Hoppin 
house,  on  Xorth  street.  The  school  was  carried  on  in  that  building, 
to  be  stu-e,  but  it  was  not  the  first  building.  It  has  been  standing 
about  a  mile  west  of  the  village,  and  used  as  a  negro  tenement, 
but  is  fast  falling  to  i)ieces.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  interest 
of  Mr.  Kilhomn  in  the  real  "first  law  school  building"  has  been 
the  means  of  saving  this  historic  building,  and  j^rcserving  it  for  the 
l>enefit  of  future  generations. 


i^ 


p 

'n 


LAW  SCHOOIv  193 

THE  LITCHFIELD  LAW  SCHOOL. 

A  catalogue  of  this  school  was  published  in  1828  of  those  attend- 
ing from  1798.  A  supplement  was  added  bringing  the  names  down 
to  1 83 1.  In  1849  it  was  reprinted  including  the  names  to  the  close 
of  the  school  in  1833. 

In  January,  1900,  Hon.  George  M.  Woodrufif  again  reprinted 
the  catalogue,'  adding  some  pictures  and  matter  relating  thereto. 

The  various  notices  and  prefaces  are  herewith  reprinted  and 
fullv  explain  themselves. 

In  the  former  catalogues  the  names  are  arranged  by  classes, 
in  this  they  appear  alphetically. 

It  is  believed  that  these  names  all  appear  upon  the  Bar  Records, 
it  being  the  rule  that  all  students  should  be  entered  thereon.  Upon 
our  records  there  are  a  great  many  names  not  appearing  in  this 
catalogue,  being  students  who  were  studying  with  other  attorneys. 
That  none  of  the  law  school  students  previous  to.  1798  appear  here 
is  probabh-  from  the  fact  that  our  bar  records  begin  at  that  date. 

AD\ERTISEMEXT  To  FIRST  EDITIOX   1828. 

The  committee  to  whom  has  been  referred  the  publication  of 
this  catalogue,  deem  it  i)r()i)er  to  ])rehx  a  few  observations  in  rela- 
tion to  the  institution,  and  the  course  of  iuotruction  therein  pre- 
scribed. 

The  Law  School  was  established  in  1782  by  the  Hon.  Tapping 
Reeve,  late  Chief  Justice  of  this  State,  and  continued  under  his 
sole  direction  until  the  year  1793,  when  the  Hon.  J.  (fould  was 
associated  with  him.  These  gentlemen  continued  their  joint  labors 
until  1820,  since  which  period  Judge  Gould  has  lectured  alone. 
From  its  commencement,  it  has  enjoyed  a  patronage,  which  dis- 
tinguished talent,  combined  with  legal  attainment,  justly  merited. 
It  has  been  composed  of  young  men  from  every  section  of  the 
I7ni(in.  manv  of  whom  have  since  been  eminently  conspicuous,  both 
as  jurists  and  as  statemen.  And,  indeed,  even  now,  notwithstand- 
ing the  nuermous  legal  seminaries  which  have  been  established 
throughout  our  country,  this  school  maintains  its  proud  pre-emi- 
nence.* This,  it  is  believed,  it  to  be  attributed  to  the  advantages, 
which  the  mode  of  instruction  here  prescribed,  possess  over  the 
§y*sterrr  usuaTK-~'ail6pted  in  similar  institutions. 

According  to  the  plan  pursued  by  Judge  Gould,  the  law  is 
'divided  into  forty-eight  titles,  which  embrace  all  its  important 
branches,  and  of  which  he  treats  in  systematic  detail.  These  titles 
are  the  result  of  thirty  years  severe  and  close  application.  They 
comprehended  the  whole  of  his  legal  reading  during  that  Dcriod, 
and  continue  moreover,  to  be  enlarged  and  improved  by  modern 
adjudications.     The  lectures,   which  are   delivered   every   day,   and 


H)4  I.ITCHI'IEI.D  COl'XTY  BRXCII  AND  BAR 

Avhicli  usually  c>ccui)y  an  hour  and  a  half,  embrace  every  principle 
and  rule  falling  under  the  several  divisions  of  tlie  different  titles. 
These  principles  and  rules  are  su])ported  by  numerous  authorities, 
-and  i(enerally  accompanied  with  familiar  illustrations.  Whenever 
the  opinions  upon  any  point  arc  contradictory,  the  authorities  in 
su])port  of  either  doctrine  are  cited,  and  the  arc^uments.  advanced 
l)y  either  side,  are  presented  in  a  clear  and  concise  manner,  toj^ether 
Avith  the  lecturer's  own  vievvs  of  the  f|uestion.  In  fact,  every  ancient 
and  modern  opinion,  whether  over-ruled,  doubted,  or  in  any  way 
qualified,  is  here  systematically  digested.  Tliese  lectures,  thus 
classified,  are  taken  down  in  full  by  the  students,  and  after  being 
compared  with  each  other,  are  generally  transcribed  in  a  more  neat 
and  legible  liand.  The  remainder  of  the  day  is  occupied  in  examin- 
ing the  authorities  cited  in  support  of  the  several  rules,  and  in  read- 
ing the  most  ap]:)roved  authors  upon  those  branches  of  the  law, 
which  are  at  the  time  the  subject  of  the  lectures.  These  notes, 
thus  written  out,  are,  when  C()m])lete,  comprised  in  five  large  vol- 
umes, which  constitute  books  of  reference,  the  great  advantages 
of  which  must  be  apparent  to  every  one  of  the  slightest  acquaint- 
ance with  the  com]irehensive  and  abstruse  science  of  the  law.  The 
examinations,  which  are  held  every  Saturdax ,  upon  the  lectures  of 
the  preceeding  week,  consist  of  a  thorough  investigation  of  the 
])rinciples  of  each  rule,  and  not  merely  of  such  questions  as  can 
be  answered  from  memory  without  any  exercise  of  the  judgment. 
These  examinations  are  held  by  Jabez  \\\  Huntington,  Esq.,  a  dis- 
tinguished gentleman  of  the  l)ar,  whose  practice  enables  him  to 
introduce  frequent  and  familiar  illustrations,  which  excite  an  interest, 
and  serve  to  im]:)ress  more  strongly  upon  the  mind  the  knowledge 
acquired  during  the  week. 

There  is  also  connected  with  the  institution,  a  Moot  Court  for 
the  argument  of  law  questions,  at  which  Judge  Gould  ])resides. 
The  questions  that  are  discussed  are  prepared  l)y  him  in  the  forms 
in  which  the\-  generally  arise.  These  courts  are  held  once  at  least 
in  each  week,  two  students  acting  as  counsellors  one  on  each  side. 
And  the  arguments  that  are  advanced,  together  with  the  opinion  of 
the  judge,  are  carefully  reconkMl  in  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose. 
For  the  preparation  of  these  questions,  access  may  at  all  times 
1)6  had  to  an  extensive  library.  Besides  these  courts,  there  are 
societies  established  for  improvement  in  forensic  exercises,  which 
are  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  students.. 

The  whole  course  is  completed  in  fourteen  months,  including 
two  vacations  of  two  weeks  each,  one  in  the  spring,  the  other  in 
the  autumn.  No  student  can  enter  for  a  shorter  period  than  three 
months.  The  terms  of  instruction  are  $ioo  for  the  first  year,  and 
$60  for  the  second,  payable  either  in  advance  or  at  the  end  of  the 
year. 


jrUC.IC    COLLI)  S    LAW    SCHOOL    I'.L'ILOIXG 


This  1)iiil(liiiy;-  was  l)uilt  1)\'  janies  (jonkl  as  his  law  office  ahout 
1795.  ^\  hen  he  associated  with  Ju(lo;'e  Reeve  in  law  school  he  used 
his  office  for  his  lectures.  It  stood  in  his  yard  on  the  West  side  of 
North  street.  It  was  abandoned  at  the  close  of  the  Law  School 
about  1835.  and  soon  after  the  death  of  Judge  Gould  was  sold  and 
removed  a  mile  West  of  the  village  on  the  Bantam  road  and  con- 
verted into  a  dwelling-  house.  For  many  years  it  was  occupied  by  a 
colored  family,  and  for  five  or  six  years  has  been  unoccupied.  It 
is  now  a  ruin. 

'J'he  photo  frdui  which  this  picture  was  made  was  taken  in  1898. 


CI^OKCK  C.    WOCJDKLl'l' 

Compiler  of  this  Catalogue,   1828. 


1,.\\V  SCHOOL  195 

This  cataloo-ue  extends  only  as  far  back  as  1798.  Previous  to 
that  period,  it  is  beheved  that  the  whole  number  exceeded  four 
hundred  ;  no  record,  however,  has  been  preserved.  The  names  of 
the  students  are  placed  in  the  order  in  which  they  entered,  without 
any  regard  to  the  leng-th  of  time  they  continued  as  members  of  the 
institution.  The  committee  have  endeavored  to  notice  those  who 
have  distiniruished  themselves:  but  as  this  has  been  done  n  erelv 
from  recollection,  they  have  no  doubt  passed  by  many,  who  have 
conferred  honor  upon  their  country  and  their  profession. 

Litchfield,  Jan.   1.   1828. 

CATAL(  )Gl 'E. 


Abeel,    George    New  York   1823 

Adams.   Charles    Massachusetts    181 2 

.\dams.   Joseph    T Massachusetts    1820 

Adams.    John    Iviassachusetts    1822 

Adams,  John  T Connecticut    1833 

Aiken,    Charles    New  Hampshire   1832 

Albro,  John   A Massachusetts    182 r 

Alden,    Cvrus    Massachusetts    1808 

Alden.    Hiram   O Xew  Hampshire 1823 

Allen.  Alexander  M Georgia    1801 

Allen.    Zimri    R Nernront    181 1 

Allyn,   J.    T.    Maryland    1821 

Alston.  William  \V South  Carolina    1818 

Alston.   William   J South   Carolina 1824 

Ames,    Samuel    Rhode  Island — Chief  Jus.  R.   I .  .  1824 

Andrews,  William    Massachusetts    1812 

Andrews.  \\'illiam  T.    .  .  .  .  .  .Massachusetts    1812 

Anderson.  I'ranklin    Maryland    1813 

Anderson.   John    ^^iaryland    1815 

Ashley.   Chester    Xew  York — U.   S.   Senator 1814 

Aspinwall.    Thomas    L Xew  York   1810 

Atwater.    Frederick Xew  York 1814 

Atwater.    Russell    Xew     York   1815 

Austin,    Charles    r\Jassachusetts    1812 

Austin,    Ralsamon    Connecticut    i8or 

Austin,  Senaca   X'ermont    1820 

Averill,   Elisha    Connecticut    1814 

Averill,  William  H Connecticut    18 17 

Ayer,    Zaccheus    Georgia    1817 


196  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

B 

Babbitt,    Roswell    New  York   

Bacon,   David    Connecticut    

Bacon,   William  J Xew  York   

Baker,    Joshua    Louisiana    

Baker,    Walter    New  Hampshire   

Balcom,  Everett   Massachusetts    

Baldwin,   Birdsey    Connecticut .  .  . 

Baldwin,   Charles    New  York    

Baldwin,   Charles    Connecticut    

Baldwin,  Ebenezer   Connecticut    

]',aldwin.   Henry    Conn.— Judge  Sup.  Ct.  U.S.  M.  C 

Baldwin,  Roger   S Conn. — Governor.  U.  S.  Senator. 

Baldwin,   Samuel  S Connecticut    

Banks,    William    C Georgia    

Barcla}-,    David,    Jr A'irginia 

Barnes,    Enos    H A'irginia    ;  .  . 

Barnes,  Joseph    Alassachusetts — Judge    i'enn.  .  .  . 

Barnes,    Lauren .Connecticut    

Barnwell    William    South  Carolina    

l^)artram,   Daniel   S Comiecticut    

Bates,    Anson    .Connecticut    

Battle,  Josiah  B Connecticut    

Baxter,    Eli    H Georgia — Judge    Circuit    Court.. 

Baxter,    Horace    Massachusetts    

Beach,    Erasmus   D ^Massachusetts    

Beebe,  Levi  S New  York    

Beecher,  Truman    ,  .  .Connecticut    

Beers,    David    B Connecticut    

Beers,    Frederick .    .Connecticut    

Beers,    Seth    P Conn. — Com.  of  School  Fund.  .  . 

Belden,    Hiezekiah Connecticut    

Beli',    Hiarvey A'ermont   

Bell,   James Vermont    

I'.ellamy,    Joseph    H Connecticut    

Bennett,  Milo  L Conn. — L.L.D,  Judge  SupCt.  Vt. 

Beverly,  James    District  Columbia   

Beverly,   William    District  Columbia   

Bigelovv,  Horatio Massachusetts    

r.igelow,    Silas    Massachusetts    

Hillings,    Noyes Connecticut — Lieut.-Governor    .  . 

Bingham,  F.  W Xew  York    

Bissell,  Edward Connecticut    

B)issell.  John,  Jr Comiecticut   

r>ishop,   Jonathan   P Alaryland    

Bixby,  Alfred   New  Hampshire   


833 

806 

823 
821 

812 
818 
806 
801 
810 
810 
798 
812 
800 
818 
832 
826 
801 
806 
826 

799 
820 

798 
818 
812 

816 
829 
809 
80^ 

798 

812 

824 
808 
811 

813 
813 

810 

814 

820 

830 

828 
826 
814 
821 


LAW  SCHOOL  197 

Blackwell,   David    .  .  .Kentucky    1813 

Blake.   Eli   W Connecticut    1817 

Blake,    Francis    A Massachusetts    ^817, 

Bond.  Nathaniel  P Geor^-ia    1819 

Bond.   William    Maryland    181  r 

Bonestall.   A'irgil  D New  York   1830 

Bonnel,  Joseph    Delaware    181 5 

Boardman.    George   S Connecticut    1819 

Boardman,    William    \\' Connecticut — Member    Congress.  18 16 

I'.olles.  Job   S.   T Georgia    ' 1822 

Booth.  James.  Jr Delaware — Chief    Justice    1810 

Bosson,  Charles Massachusetts    t8ii 

Bostvvick.    Charles    Connecticut    1798 

Bovle.    James    Connecticut    i<^33 

Brace,  John  V Connecticut    181 2 

Brace.   Thomas   K Connecticut    1802 

P.radley,    Benj.    IT Connecticut    1818 

Bradley,    Edwin    ]'> CV)nnecticut    1827 

Brayton,  George  A Bhode  Island 1825 

Breckenridge.  John    Maryland    1821 

Brimsmade.  Daniel  B Connecticut    1803 

B-ronson,   Frederick    Xew  York    1824 

iSroome.  Jacob    Delaware    t8o<i 

Brookes.  Whitefield    South   Carolina    1814 

T>rown,    Charles    R Connecticut    ^813 

Brown,   Franklin    Xew  York    1827 

Brown,  George   Xew  York 1814 

Brown,   Nicholas,  Jr Rhode    Island    181 1 

Bruvn,  Andrew  D.  W X'^ew  York — -^Member  Congress.  .  181 1 

Buffet,  William   P Xew  York    1813 

Buchanan,  AN'illiam    S  .....  .  1  'ennsylvania 1824 

lUilkley,  Joscjih    Cnnecticut    1810 

lUillard,    Royal Massachusetts    1810 

15ull.  Epaphras  W Connecticut    1826 

Bunker,  Charles    ^Massachusetts    1822 

Bunnell,   James    F X^ew  York   1827 

Burgess,  \\'.  Arnold Rhode  Island 1821 

Butler,    Chester   P Pennsylvania — ]\Iem.  of  Cong.  .  .  1818 

Butler,  David  B Xew  jersey   1825 

Burrall.    \\'illiam    P Connecticut    1828 


Calhoun,   John   C South  Carolina — L.  L.  D.,  A'.  P. 

Mem.  of  Cong. ;  Senator  ;  Sec. 

of  State  and  of  War 1805 

Camp,   Ralph   G Connecticut    1824 


198  I.ITCITI'IKI.D  COrXTV   HKXCn  AND  BAR 

CanibrelHng-  Stephen   North  Carohna   

Campbell,    Collin    South  Carolina    

Campbell,   Georj^e   L New  York   

Cam])l)ell,  John   South   Carolina    

Cantelou,  l*eter  L Georgia    

Cantelou,  William   !*> Georgia    

Canfield,    Ezra Connecticut    

Canfiekl,   Henry  J Connecticut    

Cardwell.  John  W South    Carolina    

Carroll,    Charles    H New  York — Member  Congress.  . 

Carroll,   Willam    ,  .  .Indiana    

Castor,  Dyer   1  'ennsylvania    

Catlin,    George    I'enn. —  Indian   portrait   painter.  . 

Catlin.   (icorge    S Conn. — Member  of  Congress.  .  .  . 

Catlin,   Grove    Connecticut    

Chase,   Harvey    ...  New  Hampshire   

Chase,    Moses    New  Hhampshire   

Chase,    Samuel    New  York   

Champion,    Epaphroditus    .  .  .Connecticut    

Champlin,    Christopher    Rhode    Island 

Chambers,   Joseph    I'ennsylvania    

Chambers,    llenjamin    L Maryland    

Chamberlin,    Melliu    Maine    

Chandler,  Anson  G ,  .  Maine    

Chandler,  John  A Maine    

Chandler,   Hannibal    Virginia     

Channing,   Henry   W Connecticut    

Chapin.    Moses    Mass. — Judge  X.  Y.  Courts 

Chapman,   Charles .Connecticut    

Chester,  Henry   New  York    

Chester,    Ste])hen    M Connecticut    

Cheever,  Sanniel    Massachusetts    

Child,    .\bicl    .  .Connecticut    

Childs,    Timothy,    Jr Massachusetts — Mem.    Congress. 

Chittenden,  Frederick    Connecticut    

Church,   Aaron .Connecticut    

Church,    Leman Connecticut    

Church.   Samuel    Connecticut — Chief    Justice 

Clark,    .Archibald    Georgia    

Clark,   Gibson    Georgia     

Clark.    I  lenr}    L New  York    

Clark,  James   Georgia    

Clark,   Robert    Georgia  , 

Clark,    1  'ctcr    New  Jersey    

Clayton.  John   AT Delaware — L.L.D,   Chief  Justice; 

U.  S.  Senator;  Sec.  of  State.  . 
Cleveland.    Stephen    New  York   


813 
809 

826 

820 

813 

813 
80  r 

808 
823 
817 
823 
82  s 
817 
827 
806 
800 

798 
818 

80  T 
810 
820 
822 
819 
818 
818 

832 
809 

813 
818 

815 

813 

812 

821 

814 

824 
80C1 

815 

Sof) 
800 
804 
82(1 
820 

83-' 
811 

8.7 
815 


LAW  scir(X)L  199 


Clifton.    \\  illiani    C Georgia 

Clinton,   George  W New  York    

Cockburn,    William    New  York    

Cogshall.  josiah   H Massachusetts    

Coleman,   John  J Alabama   

Collier.  John  A Connecticut — Af.  C.  New  York.  . 

Collins.    Augustus    Connecticut    

Collins,  Josiah.  Jr North  Carolina   

Cook,    James    C Connecticut    

Cook.  Oliver  D.,  Jr Connecticut    

Cooke.  Roger   W Connecticut    

Coolc}-,    James    Alassachusetts    

Cole.  John New  York   

Cooper.  Benjamin  F Xew  York    

Conkling.  Thomas Maryland    

Condit,  Jacob  A New^  Jersey    

Converse,    Porter    \  ermont   

Cowles.  Samuel Connecticut     

Cowles.  Henry  \\ Xcw  York    

Cowles.   Sands  G.  .  .  . Connecticut    

Crawford,    James X'enrnont     

Crawford.  Joel    Georgia — Member  of  Congress.  . 

Croghan.    William    Kentucky    

Crosby,  Piatt  H Xew  "i'ork   

Cruger.   H.   X..  Jr vSouth   Carolina    

Cumming.  Ivhvard   I  i Xew  Jersey    

Cumming.    William    Georgia    

Cunningham.    Koberl     South   Carolina    

Cuthbert.    John    A Georgia — Member  of  Congress.  . 

Cuthbert.    Alfred    Georgia — United  States  Senator. 

Cutler.    George    Y Connecticut    

Cutting.  r>rockholst    .  New  York 

Cushman.    Cliarles    C Vermont   

Cushman.  John    P Conn. — M.  C.  and  Judge  X.  Y.  . 


82;; 
828 
818 
8og 
S27 
805 
804 
826 

818 
817 

799 
810 

821 
817 

813 
804 
802 
817 
^26 
832 
8o('> 

813 
821 

826 

806 

810 

807 

804 

819 

823 

828 

808 


D 

FJart.   John    S South   Carolina    1821 

Davidge,   Francis   H Maryland    181 5 

Davis,  John N'irginia 181  r 

Davis,    James    Maryland    1816 

Davis,  John   H Delaware    1817 

Davies,    Henry    Maryland    1809 

Davies,    Israel    W Massachusetts    181 1 

Davies,    John    15 \in4inia    181  ^ 


200  l.lTCllI"li:i.l)  COIXT^'    r.KNCIl    AM)   IIAR 

Dawson,    T^awrence South   Carolina    1822 

Dawson,    William    C.  .  .  .      .  .Georg-ia — Judqc  ;  L'.  S.  Senator.  .1817 

]  )ay.    iMlj^far    I'. New   York    1826 

Delamotter,    Jacob    Georgia    182 [ 

DeMenou.    Gharles     Charge  d'Affairs  of  Franco,  D.  C.1808 

Iteming,    Unci   H Connecticut    1825 

Denny,   Thomas    Massachusetts    1823 

Deveraux.   Geo.'  I' North    Carolina    1817 

Deveraux,    Thomas    ....     .  .  .North    Carolina     181 3 

Deveraux,    Tliomas    P No.  Carolina — Reporter  Su]).  Ct.1815 

Deas,    1  lenry    South   Carolina    1818 

Dexter.    Christopher   C Rhode  Island 1813 

Doolittle,   Amos    1! Connecticut     1806 

Doan,  Guy Connecticut    1814 

Downes,     \i)])leton     Massachusetts    181  r 

Downman,    John    P> Massachusetts    1813 

Doyle,    Francis    Georgia     1822 

Duhois,    Cornelius,   Jr New   \'ork    1830 

Dunhar,    Daniel    Connecticut     17*^)8 

Dunliar,    Miles     (  onnecticut     i8(Xj 

Dwight.    Henry    W Massachusetts, Member  Congress.  1809 

1  )yer,    'Hiomas    Connecticut    1/99 

E 

Eastman,    .\.    G New  York    1833 

Edwards,    I  lenry    P    Conn. — Judge  Suj).  Ct.  N.  Y.  .  .  .  1828 

Edwards,   1  lenry   P New  York    1830 

Edwards,    Henry   W Conn. — U.  S.  Sen. :  Gov.  Conn.  .  1798 

Edwards,    John    vS Connecticut    1798 

Edwards,   ( )(lgen    Conn. — Judge  Sup.  Ct.  X.  Y.  .  .  .  iSoi 

Eickelberggcr,    Louis     Maryland    1810 

Elgin,  Hezekiah  R Maryland    1815 

FZllis,   Grindall   R .New  Ham])shire    1809 

Ellsworth,    I  lenry    L .Connecticut    18 11 

Ellsworth,    William    W Conn. — Com.  of   Patents;  M.  C.  ; 

Governor:  judge  Sup.  Court.  .1811 

Ellmaker,   .Amos    Pennsylvania    1806 

l{llmend()rf,    lulmond    I'. New  York    1826 

Ennis,  \\'illiam    Rhode  Island   1820 

Erwin,    Isaac    II Mabama     1828 

Everest,    Sherman    Connecticut    1800 

F 

Fairle,    Frederick    New  York    1818 

Felder.    John    M South  Ca  rolina — Mem.  of  Cong.  1805 

F^ine,  John    New  York    1813 


Cl-OKCK    .M.    WOODKITF 

Reprinted  the  Cataloj^ue.   1900 


LAW  SCHOOL  20 1 


Fisher,    Isaac.   Jr Maryland    

Fisher,  Samuel   Massachusetts    

Fitch,  John    Connecticut    

Fleming",   Matthew    South   Carolina    

Floyd,  Joseph  R Maryland    

Follet,   Timoth\-    .....' \^erm|on:t    

Folsom,    Joshua    New  Hampshire   

h'^oot,  John  A Connecticut    

Footman,   William    Maryland    

Ford,    William    H South  Carolina   

Foster,  George    Massachusetts    

Foster,    James     Massachusetts    

Foster,  Thomas  F Massachusetts — M.  C,  (Veo. 

Fowler,  James Massacliusetts    

Fowler,  John   1) Massachusetts 

Francis,    fohn   !'> Rhode    Island    

Franklin."    Walter    S I'enn.— Clerk   II.   K.   I'.  S.. 

Frazier,   Alexander  (» South  Carolina    

Frisbie,    Samuel    Connecticut    

Indler,   Henry    H Massachusetts    

h'uller,    William   W Massachusetts    

iMillerton.   Alexander    X N'ermont    

Fullerton.    Thomas    S \ermbnit     


811 
810 

80:; 

815 
818 
812 
811 
824 

815 
826 

812 

812 

816 

808 

81.^ 

813 
818 

810 

809 

812 

814 

82f> 

822 


Gantt,    ^>ainucl     South   Carolina    1817 

Ganesvonrt,    I'eter    Xew   York    1810 

Gardner.    Philiji    S Rhode  Island 1826 

Gihhs,  David    Massachusetts    1808 

Gihbs,    Henry    W Connecticut    1808 

Gihhs,    William    C Rhode  Island — Governor 1810 

(nhson.  William    Georgia     1823 

( ilover.    Samuel    Xew  York    1820 

Gold,   Thomas   A Massachusetts    1808 

(roodwin.   Fdward    Connecticut    1823 

Goodwin,    Hiram    Connecticut    1829 

Gould,    (icorge    Conn. — Judge  Sujx  Court  X.  Y.  .  1827 

(^lould   James   R Connecticut    1824 

Cjould,   William   T Conn. — Judge,    C^eorgia 1818 

Graham,   John   L Xew  York   1814 

Grant.  William    South  Carolina    1823 

Grant.   William    A Georgia    ^823 

Graves,    Thomas    C Kentucky    1808 

Gray,    Thomas    Connecticut    1817 

Green,    Caleb,    Jr X^ew  York   1830 

Greene,  Albert  C Rhode  Island — U.   S.   Senator.  .  .  1812 


202  I,riCIIl'li;i.l)  COUNTY   liKNCIl  AND  BAR 

GreenCj,  Benjamin  D IMassachusetts    1813 

C.rcen.    Ilcnrv    ^^' Rhode  Island — Justice  Sup.  Court 

and  Chancellor  Xew  Jersey.  .  .  1823 

Greene,    Richard    W Rhode  Island 1812 

Greene,    William     Rhode  island 1817 

Griffin,   Geori^e    Connecticut — L.L.I) 1798 

Grisw<i.ld,   Shuhal    Connecticut    1809 

Groomc,    John    C Maryland    1824 

Gustin,    A,l])heus     North  Carolina    1819 

Gwathmy,  Isaac  K Kentucky    ^813 

Gium.    Fredi'rick    Connecticut    1812 


H 

Haslnall,    William    R Maryland    

Hall,   Ambrose    Massachusetts    

Hall,  (^.ideon    Conn. — Juds^e   Sup.    Court 

Hall,  Horace   Vermiont     

Hall,    Willis     New  York— Attorney  Gen.  N.  Y. 

Halsted.   (  )liver    S New  Jersey— Chancellor  N.  J.  ■  . 

Halsted.    Robert    W New  Jersey    

Halsted,  William,  Jr New  Jersey    

Halsey.    Ho])kins    (jcorgia — Mem.   of  Cong-ress.  .  .  . 

Hand,   Aus^ustus    C \  ermont — Judge  Su]).  Ct.  N.  Y. 

Hamilton,    Thomas    South   Carolina    

Harrison,    Tipton    R \'irg-inia    

Llarvev,   Lerov    Georgia    

LRisbrook,  Ab'raham  B New  York— M.  C. ;  L.L.D. :  Pres- 
ident Rutgers'  College.  N.  J  .  .  . 

1  lassell,    ik-ntley    South  Carolina    

Hatch,  Moses    Connecticut    

I  lawkes,  I'rancis  L  North  Carolina — Clergyman  ;  au- 
thor   N.    Y '.' 

Havvkes,    Hcnjamin    11 North  Carolina    

Hawkins,  Samuel    New  York    

Hawley,  Charles   Conn. — Lt.-Gov.    Conn 

Hay  den,    Moses    Massachusetts    

Head,  Cieorgc  1\ I\Iassachusetts    

I  Icpburn,  Joseph   L I  enns}lvania    

Hicco.x,  Guy    Connecticut    

1  nil.  Jose])h   A North  Carolina    

Hill,  William  R South  Carolina    

Hillhouse,  .Augustus  L Connecticut    

I  line,  I  lomer Connecticut    

nines,  Richard 

llinman,    l\o\al    K Conn. — Sec.   State;  historian    ... 

Hitchcock,  Sauuul   Alabama    


819 
802 
829 
803 

826 
813 
827 

814 
819 
827 
810 
818 
821 

812 
825 
80  r 

818 
823 
798 
813 
804 
813 
819 
806 
819 
821 
812 
800 

814 
806 
828 


LAW  SCHOOL  203 


Holabird,  William  F Connecticut — Lt.   Gov.   Conn.  .  .  . 

Hodges.  William  F Connecticut    

Holcomb,   Chaunccy   P Connecticut    

Holley.  John  M.,  Jr.  .  .^ Conn. — Mem.  of  Cong-.  N.  Y 

Holt,   George   B Conn. — Judge  in   Ohio 

Holt,  Thaddeus  G Georgia — Judge  Sup.  Court  Ga.  . 

Hooker.  James    Connecticut    

Hopkins,  Abiather   New  Hampshire   

Hotchkiss,  Minor   Connecticut    

Houston,   Patrick    Georgia    

Houghton,    Josiah Maine    

Howard,    I'.cnjamin   Chas.  .  .  .Alar^land    

Howard,    John    H Georgia    

Howe,    Samuel    Massachusetts — Judge    

Hoyt,    Henry    S Xew  York   

Hubbard,    Elijah    Connecticut    

Hubbard.    I^lizur    X'ermont    

Hubbel,    James    Vermont    

Hudson.  Jonathan  T Connecticut    

Hull,    Hezekiah    P Connecticut    

Hunt.  Hiram  P Xew   York — Mem.   of   Congress. 

Hunt.  Jonathan Connecticut    

Hunt.  Ward  E Xew  York — Chief  Justice  of  X. 

Y.  Judge  U.  S.  Su]).  Court.  .  .  . 
Huntington,  Jabez  ^^' Conn. — M.   C. :    I'.    S.   S. ;  Judg'e 

Supreme  Court    

Humphrey,  Joseph   Connecticut    

Hurlbut.   William    Connecticut    

Huttington,  William   Delaware    

Hvde.    lohn    1 Connecticut    


815 
812 

824 
823 
812 
816 
810 
808 
813 
798 
817 
812 

813 
805 

829 

798 

799 
802 

826 

813 
817 
808 

830 

808 
812 

815 
823 

829 


I 

Ingersoll.  Charles  ]\I Xew  Hampshire   1812 

Ingham.  Alpheus I'ennsylvania    1825 

Ives,   Moses   B ~ Rhode  Island 1812 

Ives,  Henry  C Xew  York   1831 

J 

Jacobs.  Cyrus    Pennsylvania    .....* 1823 

Jacobs.  George  \\' Pennsylvania    1819 

Jacobs,  William  C Pennsylvania    1820 

Jackson,    Ebenezer.    Jr CTCorgia — Member  of  Congress.  .  1814 

Jackson.   John   P X'ew  Jersey   1824 

Jackson,  Joseph    Georgia    18 17 

Jackson,  Oliver  P New  York   1823 


204  IJTCIII'JKI.I)  COLXTV    1!KXCT[  AND  1!AR 

Jackson,  Thomas  L Georg-ia    1823 

Janvier,   Thomas,   jr Delaware    1828 

James,   Edward   ^\ New  York    1805 

Jarvis,    Russell    Massachusetts    1813 

Jenkins,  Charles  M Xew  York   1831 

Jessup,   Ebenezer    Connecticut    1825 

Jewell,   Ezra    Connecticut    1809 

Johns,   Kenscy,  Jr Delaware — M.   C. :  Chancellor.  .  .  1812 

Johnson.  Charles  F Connecticut    1824 

Johnson,  Edwards    Connecticut    1826 

Johnson.  James Georgia    1816 

Johnson.    William    S Connecticut    1816 

Johnston,  James  T Geori^^ia     1816 

Jones,    Henry    Calcutta,  East  Indies 1810 

Jones,  Joel Pennsylvania — L.L.D i8ii> 

Jones,   John   Q Xew  York   18 17 

Jones,   Robert    ^813 

Jones.   Rice    Louisiana    1807 

Judson,  Noah    Massachusetts    1799 

K 

Kaleb,  William  M Maryland    1827 

Kaleb,  J.  A.  Mc Maryland    1829 

Kellogi?,  Edward    Massachusetts    1823 

Kelso,    Charles   W Pennsylvania    1828 

Kerr,   Joseph    C North  Carolina   1817 

Key,    1  'hillip    Maryland    1829 

Kilbourn,   Austin    Connecticut    1821 

King,    Edward    New  York   181 3 

King,  George  G Rhode  Island 1826 

King,  James  G Xew  York — Mem.  of  Congress.  .  1810 

Kingsbury.  San  ford New  Hampshire   1801 

Kinnecutt.   Thomas    Massachusetts — Eieut-Gov 1833 

Kirbv,  Revnold  M Connecticut    1809 

Kirkiand.  'Chas.    P New  York   1818 

Kniglit,    Frederick    Massachusetts    18 12 


I^ake,  J(>se|)h   ( )hio    1820 

Lamar,   Lucius  O.  C Georgia — Judge  Sup.  Court 1817 

Langdon.   IJenjamin   F \'ermont   182 1 

Langsing.  Levincss   S New  York    1830 

Lathrop.  Cyrus  H Massachusetts    1810 

Latham.    Allen    Massachusetts    1814 

Lashell,    John    '. Pennsylvania    1810 


LAW  SCHOOL  205 

Lawrence.  Aiig-ustus  A Xew  York   1813 

Lawrence,   Phillip  K Xew  York   1814 

Lawrence,  William  B New     York — Charo^e     d'affaires, 

London   18 19 

Leavenworth.  Elias  W IMass. — L.L.D. :    ^l.    C:    Sec.  of 

State   X.   Y 1825 

Leavenworth.   Xathan    New  York    ^813 

Leavenworth.  William   F.  .  .  .Connecticut    1822 

Leavitt.  Harvey  F Xew  Hampshire    1816 

Ledyard,   flenry    New  York    ^830 

Leonard.    Cornelius    Xew  York    1810 

Lewis.  John   L Louisiana    1825 

Lewis.   Ko1)ert  H \'irginia    1821 

Lewis.  \\'illiam   Louisiana    181 7 

Livinjj^ston,    Carrol!    Xew  York    1827 

Livinj^ston.   1  lenry  W Xew  York   1820 

Livingston,  James  K Xew  York    1818 

Livins^ston.  John  R Xew  York    1823 

Livini^ston,  Robert   Xew  York    1829 

Livin^-ston.    Walter    Xew  York    1820 

Lloyd.  Joseph  R Xorth  Carolina    1818 

Lockwood.   Ephraim    Connecticut    ^79^ 

Loring.  Charles  G Massachusetts    1813 

Lorinii'  Kdward  d Massachusetts    1822 

Lord,"  Daniel,  Jr New  York— L.L.D 1814 

Long"street,  Augustus  B Georgia — L.L.D. ;  Judge  Sup.  Ct. : 

College  President    1813 

Lott.  Adrain    New  York    1831 

Low.  Cornelius   Xew  York    1812 

Lowndes.   Uenjamin   X^irginia    1825 

Ludlow,  Alfred Xew  York    1822 

Lundy,    Etheldred    \  irginia    1818 

Lyman,  Darius    Connecticut    181 1 

Lyman.  Samuel  F Massachusetts    1819 

Lyman,  Theodore Massachusetts    181 1 

M 

Marberry.    John    Maryland    1813 

^lack.    Elisiia    Massachusetts    1805 

]Magruder.    Enoch     1  'ennsylvania     1816 

^Nlackie.  Teeter    Xew  York    1813 

IMallory,   Garrick    I'enn. — L.L.D. ;  Judge  Penn.   .  .  .  1810 

]\Iann.  George Rhode  Island 1826 

Mann.   Horace    !Mass. — M.  of  C. ;  educator 1822 

^Mansfield.  Edward  D New  York   1823 

T^Iarkley,    Iknj.   A South  Carolina    1806 


2C)6  I.ITCTIFTKI.D  COUNTY   ];F,NCH  AND  BAR 

Marvin,  Ebenezer VeriTLont . 

Marsh,   Charles.    |r Vermont   

Martin,    Joseph    F Rhode  Island 

Martin,   William   D South   Carolina — M.   C 

Mason,   John   Y Virginia — M.  C. ;  Judge  ;  Sec.  of 

Xavy  ;  Mason  and  Slidell  affair. 

Mason,  William  J Virginia    

Mayson.   Charles  C South  Carolina    

Mather.   Nathaniel    Connecticut    

Maxwell.    Robert    Marylanrl    

Maxev.    X'irgil    Rhode  Island — Chg.  d'affairs  \\c\- 

gium    

Mayer,  Abraham    I'enns)  Ivania    

Mayer,    John    I ! Pennsylvania    

Mayo,   Harman   B New  York   

McCawley,    Robert    Virginia    

McClean,   James   G Vlar^iand    

McElhenny,  James    South   Carolina    

McFarland,  William  H A'irginia 

Merwin,  Elijah    15 \  ermont     

Metcalf,  Theron   ]\.[assachusetts    

Middleton,  Henry  A South   Carc^lina    

]\liddleton,    Henry    South   Carolina    

Mills,   Roger    Connecticut    

Mills,    Michael   F Connecticut    

Alillar,  Bowyar A'irginia — (  r>o\er    F.    IMiller?)  .  . 

Miller,  Charles    Connecticut    

Miller,    Josc|)h Connecticut    

Miller,    Morris    Georgia    

Miller,  Rutger  V, New '  York    

Miller,  Solomon  S \'iermont     

Minturn.   Thomas    K New  ^'ork    

Mitchell,   Charles    Connecticut    

Mitchell.    1  Tenry     V Connecticut    

Mitchell,    Eouis   C Connecticut    

Mitchell,  Louis    Connecticut    

Mitchell,  Stephen  M Connecticut    

Mollit,  Thomas   Georgia    

Morris,   Hciu-y    New  York    

Moore,    Robert    Georgia     

Morrison,  James New  Flampshire    

Morse,   Sidney  E IMass. — Founder  N.  Y.  Observer. 

Morson,    Arthiu-    A Airginia    

Moseley,    Charles    Connecticut    

Mumford,    William    \\' New  York    

Munger.  Warren Connecticut     


799 
813 
818 

810 

817 
821 
814 
811 
817 

805 

817 
823 
821 
819 
S22 
822 
818 
801 
806 

815 
817 
798 
801 

817 
818 
801 
798 
824 
8ri 
826 
804 
826 
807 

813 
800 

816 

S.26 

F,22 
809 
814 
823 
806 

815 
811 


-y/'^Jr^'-  r 


i  ^-^^^g 


[i^A4. 


^^ts 


Purchased  the  Judge  Reeve  Homestead 


LAW  SCHOOL  207 


N 


Nash,  Lonson    Massachusetts    1803 

Neill,  George  P Pennsylvania    1829 

Nesbit,   Eugenius   A Cieorgia — AL  C. :  Judge  Sup.  Ct.  1823 

Nichols,    Joseph    H New  York   1827 

Nichol,   Edward    Xew  York   1813 

Nicoll,  John  C Georgia — Judge  ;    V.   S.    District 

Judge    1814 

Nixon,   Henry   G South  Carohna    1820 

Nelson,   Armstead    Alaryland    1814 

Newconib,    Isaac    M New  York   1828 

Norton,   Marcus    Mass. — Judge  ;  Crov.   Mass 1806 

Norton,  James  C New  York   1819 

North,   Theodore    Connecticut    1808 

Nutall,  William  B. North  Carolina   1823 

o 

Oakley,  Jesse New  York    1814 

Ogden,  Matthias  B New  Jersey    1813 

Olcut,    Theophilus    New  Hampshire   t8oi 

Oliver,    Henry    Maryland    1821 

Oliver,  Sanmel  W Georgia    1820 

Olmstead,  Charles  C Connecticut    i8ro 

Ornisbee,  Edgar  S X^ermont    1824 

Orne.  Henry   Massachusetts    181 1 

Overton,  Thomas   B Pennsylvania 1813 

O'Hara,   Arthur   PI .North  Carolina   18 14 


Page,  Benjamin    Rhode  Island 1805 

Page,  Henry   Rhode  Island 1816 

Painter,  Alexis   Connecticut    1817 

Parker,  Auiasa   Connecticut    1809 

Parker,  Aurelius  D Massachussetts    1826 

Parker,  Charles  T Massachusetts    1828 

Parker,  William   M 1820 

Parrott,  Abner  B Georgia    1821 

Parson,  Anson  A' Mass. — Judge  Sup.  Court  Penn.  .  1825 

Pasteur,  Edward  G North  Carolina   1823 

I'atterson,  Chris.   S Pennsylvania    1821 

Patton,  Robert    1814 

Payne,  Elijah,  Jr Vermont   1815 

Peck,  William  \' Cennecticut — Judge,    Ohio    1824 

Pell,   Duncan   C New  York   1826 

Pennev.   Samuel    New  York    1828 


2o8  i.iTc~ii i'ii;i.i)  t(u  xTv  ni;\cii  and  f.ar 

]\'rkins,  diaries   Conncctiout    

Perkins.  Tliomas   S Connecticut    

Pettilyone,  Sereno   Connecticut    

Petet,    Joel    T Connecticut    

1  'etet.   \\'illiani   \\' ( )hio    

Phelps.   Charles   ]'. Xew  ilampshire    

Phelps,  Edward  A Connecticut     

Phelps.  Elisha Conn. — A[cm.  of  Congress 

Phelps,  Jedediah   Massachusetts    

Phelps.  Samuel  v^ Conn.— r.  v^.  S.  :  Tudg-c  S.  C.  A't. 

Pickett,   Reuben    North  Carolina    

Pickett,  William   J) North   Carolina — Judge    Sup.    Ct. 

Alabama    

Pierce,  James    Connecticut    

Pierce.  Levi ]yiar\land    

Pierce,  AMlliam  L Georgia    

Pierpont,  John    Connecticut — Rev. ;  poet 

Pierpont.   John    Conn. — Chief  Justice   A'ermont.  . 

Pierson,   C.eorge    New  York    

Pillsburv.   William    Alassachusetts    

Pitcher.  John New  York — L,ieut.-Gov 

Pitcher,  Phillip New^  York   

Pitt,  John  R Georgia    

Player,  Thompson  T South  Carolina    

Poe,  AVashington    Georgia — Member  of  Congress.  . 

Polk,  Thomas  G North  Carolina   

Porter,  George  B Penn. — Gov.  of  ^Michigan 

Porter,    Timothy    H New  Hampshire — ]\[.  Congress.  . 

Porteus,  Jolui    South   Carolina    

Post,  Albert  L 

Potter,  Ansel Connecticut     

Potter,  Asa    Rhode    Island    

Prentice,  Henry  E 

Preston.   Isaac  T Virginia — Judge  S.  C.  Louisiana. 

l^rice,  Penjamin    Maryland    

Pumpelly,    George   J New  York   

Putnam.    Austin    New  York    

Putnam,  Charles Massachusetts    


813 
812 
802 
800 

8LS 
806 

828 

801 

810 

811 

825 

826 

798 

8lS 
809 

809 

825 
830 

8l^ 

815 
828 

816 

826 

823 

811 

812 

807 

800 

832 
80:; 
S26 

832 
812 
820 
826 
828 
814 


R 

Rankin,   Robert  G New  York   1827 

Raymond,    Daniel     Connecticut    1810 

Raymond,    David   H Connecticut    1810 

Raymond,   James    Connecticut    1820 

Raynor,    Benj.   L Connecticut    1824 

Read.  John.  Jr Delaware    1824 


LAW  SCHOOL  209 


Read,  Jolm  D Delaware    

Read,  William  T D'elawarc    

Reed,   George    Delaware    

Reed,  John  H South  Carolina    

Reeve,  Aaron  B Connecticut    

Reynolds,    Walter New  York   

Richards,   George  H Connecticut    

Richards,   Henry   S New  York   

Richards,  Rohert  K New  York    

Rideley.   Greenshurg    Kentucky    

Ridgate,  Benjamin   Maryland    

Ridout.  Addison   Maryland    

Ivohhins,  Samuel  H Connecticut    

Rul:)bins,    Silas    Conn. — Judge.    Kentucky 

Rogers,  ,\rchibald  G New  York   

Rogers,   Artemas    Connecticut    

Rogers,  Charles  W Georgia    

Rogers,  Edward   Delaware    

Rogers,  Henry  A Rhode    Island    

Rogers,  Henry  B Massachusetts    

Rogers,  Henry  W Connecticut    

Rogers,   Henry    I'cnnsylvania    

Rogers,  John Delaware    

Rogers,  Moulton  C Delaware — Judge,    Pennsylvania. 

Rogers,  W'illiam  M Georgia    

Ross,    Thomas    Pemisylvania    

Ruggles,    Heman    Connecticut    

Ruggles,  Henry  J New  York   

Rutledge,  Benj.  H South  Carolina    

Rutherford,  John    Georgia    

Ruthcrf(~>rd,   Robert    GX"<^rgia    


823 
812 
808 
809 
802 
822 
800 
826 
829 
816 
814 

813 

817 

808 
823 
811 
829 
810 
821 

810 

813 
807 
829 
827 
80:5 
^{2 

817 

829 

806 


Sanniel,  l^everly   South   Carolina    1819 

Samson.  John  P.  C New  York   1817 

Sankey,   Joseph    S Georgia    1826 

Sanford,  Rollin Connecticut    1831 

Sargent,  William  F.  W Mississippi    1817 

Saunders,  Curtis  H Tennessee     18^^ 

Schley.  John  T 3,Iaryland    1828 

Schell,  Augustus New  York   1831 

Schuyler.   Robert    New  York   1818 

Scott.  John  Ray New  York   1807 

Scott.   Jessup   W Connecticut    1822 

Scudder.  Phillip  J New  Jersey   1813 

Sedgwick,  Harry   Massachusetts    1807 


2IO  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

Sedgwick.  Philo  C Connecticut    

Selden,  Ulysses Connecticut    

Sewall,    William   H ]\Iarylan(l    

Seymour,  Henry Conn. — M.  of  C. :  Gov.  of  Conn.  . 

Seymour,   Horatio    Conn. — L.L.D  ;  U.  S.  Senator  \'t. 

Seymour,   Isaac  G Georgia    

Seymour.    Origen    S Conn. — AT.  of  C.  ;Judge  and  Chief 

Justice    

Seymour,  Osias \  ermont    

Shaffer,  Joseph   L Georgia    

Shaumburgh.    Charles    \\'.  .  .Louisiana    

Shaw,    Henr\-    Xew  York — Mem.  of  Congress.  . 

Sheldon,   Daniel    Connecticut    

Sheldcn,    William    Connecticut    

Sheldon,  Isaac Connecticut    

Shelton,  Stephen Connecticut    

Shepard,    Samuel    

Sherman,  Elkanah  C Xew  York    

Sherrell,  Joseph    Massachusetts    

Sill.    Theodore    Connecticut    

Simkins,   Eldred    South  Carolina — AJ.  C. ;  Lt.-Gov. 

S.  C 

Sims,  John   G Pennsylvania    

Simons,  Moses    South  Carolina    

Simmons,  Edward  V South  Carolina    

Skinner,   John    B Connecticut    

Skinner,  Oliver Connecticut    

Skinner,  Richard    Conn. — Chief  Jus.  and  Gov  \'t..  . 

Skinner, Roger    S Connecticut    

Sloan.  Douglass  \A' Massachusetts    

Slosson,    Uarazilli    Xew  York   

Smith,  Archibald    Xew  York 

Smith,   Charles    Massachusetts    

Smitli.   1  lenry   \\ Massachusetts    

Smith    James    H Xorth  Carolina   

Smith,    J()sei)h    L Conn. — Judge  Florida  ;  U.  S.   .  .  . 

Smith.  Jmiius  Conn. — L.L.D  ;  ist  ocean  steam- 
ship. Tea  grower   

Smith,  Ira   Connecticut    

Smith,   Lemuel    Alassachusetts    

Smith,   Levi    L Pennsylvania    

Smith,    Xathaniel    P. Connecticut    

Smith,  Perrv   Conn. — U.  S.   Senator    

Smith,  Trun'ian   Conn.— M.  of  C. ;  U.  S.  Senator. 

Smallwood.  \\illiam  A District  Columbia 

Spaulding,  Richard  R Georgia    

Sparks,   William   H Georgia    


831 
802 

816 

829 

798 

825 

824 
821 

825 
827 
810 
798 
822 
810 
809 

799 
825 

8lS 
798 

803 
812 
810 
81:; 
820 
800 
798 

815 
804 

830 
814 
810 
809 
818 
800 

802 
809 
817 
82  s 
817 
807 

817 
824 

809 

820 


ORIGEX  S.   SEYMOUR 


LAW  SCHOOL  211 


822 
832 

8-V 
818 
829 
813 
823 
»27 

801 

82^ 

Si\ 
803 
809 
814 
822 
821 
817 
817 
822 

806 
81T 
H2^ 
823 
806 
810 
80T 
8^0 
822 
809 
8X2 

822 

825 

8ir 
801 
817 


Spaight.   Charles  (r Georgia    

Spires.  Uracney  T North    Carolina    

Sprague.  Peleg Massachusetts — i\  S.  Senator.  . 

Speed.   Robert  H X'irginia    

Spencer.   Alexander   ( ) New  York    

Spencer.  Oliver  M Ohio    

Spooner.    William    :  .  Massachusetts    

Stag-g.   Peter    Xew  York   

Stansbury,  G.  A Xew  York    

Stanley,    Henry     Xew  Y^ork   

Stark,  Caleb,  jr \  erniont     

Stark.    W'yatt    South  Carolina    

Starr,   Hphraim.    Jr Connecticut    

Starr,  Hein-y   Connecticut    

Steele.    William   F Maryland    

Sterrett.  John    Pennsylvania    

Sterrett.  \\'illiam   P Georgia     

Stewart.    Charles    S Xew  York    

Stiles,  Joseph  C Georgia     

Stiles,  Richard Creorgia     

Stone.  Gregory  1) Xew  Hampshire   

Stoddart.  John  T Maryland    

Storrs,   Juba    Connecticut    

Stevens.  Henry  W Connecticut    

Stevens.  John  L Xew  York    .  .  .  .' 

Stevens.    Thomas    Georgia     

Strobel.  Martin   South   Carolina    

Strong,  Elisha  )> Conneticut    

Strong,  Alartin   Connecticut    

Strong,    Moses    M \ermont    

Strong,  Theron Connecticut    

Stuart.  Francis   South  Carolina    

Stuart,  Josephus  r> Massachusetts    

Sullivan,  James Massachusetts    

Sutherland,   Josiah,    Jr Xew  York — A[.  C. :  Judge  Sp.Ct. 

Sweezy,    Thomas    [Vfassachusetts    

Swift.  P>eniamin   \>rmont — L'.    S.    Senator    

Swift.   William    X'ermont     


Tabor,  William  J Connecticut    1813 

Tallifero,  Williairi  F.  .'. \'irginia    18 13 

Tallmadge,  Frederick  A Conn. — ^L  C.  from  X.  Y 181 1 

Tatnall,  Edward  F Georgia — Member  of  Congress.  .  1810 

Taylor,   Edwin   M Massachusetts    1832 


212  LnXllFlELD  COUNTY    ISliXClL  AND  LAR 

Taylor,   Hubbard    Kentucky    1810 

Taylor.  James  S X'irginia 1818 

Taylor,  John  Oilman   ^Massachusetts    1803 

Taylor,   William    South   Carolina    1828 

Teakle,  James  D ^Maryland    1817 

Tellfair.  Josiah   Georgia    1804 

Tellfair,  Tliomas    Georgia    1806 

Tenney,  William New  Hampsliire — M.  of  C 1809 

Terry,   Alfred    Connecticut     1823 

Thayer,  James Massachusetts    1815 

Thvveat,   Uriah    Georgia     1802 

Thomas,  Alexander    Georgia     18 10 

Thomas,   Charles,  Jr Delaware    181 2 

Thompson,   Henry    IMassachusetts    1814 

Thorndike,  Larkin    Massachusetts 1809 

Todd,    Charles    Kentucky    1810 

Tolman,   Thomas    Kentucky    1813 

Torrey,   Charles    r\!assachusetts    1814 

Tracy,  George  H New  York   1830 

Treat,  v^elah  B Connecticut    1825 

Trescott,   Henr\-    South  Carolina    1815 

Trotter,  James  G Kentucky    1809 

Troup.  Robert  R New  York    1809 

Tucker,  George  J 1824 

Tuthill.    Cornelius    New  York    1815 

Twining,   Thomas,   Jr ^iassachusetts    18 14 

Tyler,  Nathan   Connecticut    1825 

V 

Vantluscn,    W  illiam    Connecticut    1803 

Vanderheyden.   Samuel    New  York   1820 

Vandyke,  Kensey  J New  Jersey    i8i8 

Vanmeter,  John  J Virginia    1821 

Van  Wagcner,  Gerrilt  G.    .  .  New  York    1823 

Verplank,  James  1) New   York    1827 

w 

Wager,    Jolui \irginia    1823 

Wakeman,    Jonathan    Connecticut    1807 

Waldo,  William  P,   New  York   1828 

Walburg,  C;eorge   M Georgia    1815 

Walker!  Charles   :\Iassachusetts    1822 

Walker,  (icorge  J.  S Georgia    1826 

Wallace,  James   W    Pennsylvania    1829 

Waring,   Nathaniel   F    New  York   1827 


LAW  SCHOOL  2 1  ^ 


Ward,   Isaac    New  Jersey   

Ward,   Richard  R    New  York   

Ward,   Solomon    Massachusetts    

Warner,   Eli    Connecticut    

Warner.  Thomas    Massachusetts    

Waterhouse,  Andrew  (J Massachusetts    

Watson,  John  B Connecticut    

Watson,    Samuel    ]\'iassachusetts    

Watson,   William    Connecticut    

Webber,    Sumner    A ^Massachusetts    

Weeks,    Alfred    A New  York   : 

Wells,  Ralph Connecticut    

Welles,  Thomas  L New  York    

Weems,   James  J District  C(>luiul)ia   

\\"etm()re,   W'illicini    L'onnecticut     

^^']^eeler,   Justice    V Alassachusetts    

White,  John  P Connecticut    

White,  Thomas Georgia    

\Mute,    William    Xew  Hampshire    

\\'luting,  John  C ^Tassachusetts    

AMiitman,  John 

Whitman,   Lenuiel    Connecticut — Mem.  of  Congress. 

Whittlesey,  Elisha  L) Connecticut — Mem.  of  Congress. 

Whittlesey.   Frederick    Conn. — AT.    of    Congress;    Judge 

Sup.  Court  X.  Y 1819 

Whittlesey.   Thomas   T Comiecticut — ^Mem.  of  Congress.  1818 

Wight,    John    L \'irginia    1824 

Williams,    David    Louisiana    1816 

Williams.    Henry    F Louisiana    1818 

A\'illiams,   Jared  A\' 1820 

Williams.    Lenuiel    Massachusetts    1806 

A\^illiams.  Thomas   S Connecticut    ^797 

\\'illiams.  William  0 Massachusetts    1799 

Wilkins,  Edmond   Xorth  Carolina    1817 

Wilkins,  John  L Xorth  Carolina   1820 

Wilson,   Andrew   P Pennsylvania    1825 

Winslow.    Edward    D Xorth  Carolina   1831 

Winship.  John  C.  M ^vfassachusetts .  1810 

Wittich,  Lucius  L Georgia     1824 

Wolcott,  Oliver   S Connecticut    1818 

Wood.  James    1798 

Woodbridge.   William    Ohio — U.  S.  Senator .  1802 

\\'oo(lbury,    Levi    Xew  Hampshire — Gov.  of  X".  H. ; 

Sec.  of  X^avy  and  Treas. ;  Judge 

of  V.  S.  Sup.  Court 1809 

Woolridge,  Thomas   South  Carolina    1815 


813 

817 
802 
808 
809 
811 

815 
826 

831 
823 

823 

812 

823 
820 

815 
804 

/'/; 
816 
818 

823 
808 
805 
81-, 


214  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

Woodruff,  George  C Connecticut — Mem.  of  Congress.  1825 

Woodruff,    Lewis    B Conn. — L.L.D. ;  Judge    Sup.    Ct. 

Ct.  of  Appeal  N.  Y.  and  Judge 
of  Circuit  Ct.  N.  Y.,  Conn,  and 

Vermont   1830 

Worthington,    Perry    Maryland    1831 

Wright.  Augustus  R Georgia — Judge    Sup.    Court.  .  .  .  1833 

Y 

Yates,   ]\Ietcalf    Xew  York   1821 

Yates,  William    New  York   1824 

Young,  Charles  C New  York   1827 

Young-.  Ebenezer   Connecticut — Mem.  of  Congress.  1809 

Number  on  Catalogue 805 

Students  previous  to   1798 210 


Whole   number    1015 


2ita9ca)il|tea 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 


OF 


LITCHFIELD  COUNTY 


BENCH,  BAR 


AND 


COUNTY  OFFICERS 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 


Tn  the  following  sketches  the  compiler  has  endeavored  to  give 
in  most  cases  only  a  very  brief  account  of  the  legal  history  of  the 
person  with  no  attempt  at  genealogy,  or  comments  upon  the  life 
or  character.  The  information  has  been  drawn  from  a  great  variety 
of  sources  and  is  believed  to  be  in  the  main  correct.  It  is,  however, 
merelv  an  index  of  the  names  of  those  who  have  contributed  their 
lives  and  energies  to  make  our  ^lountain  County  deserve  its  high 
and  noble  record  of  the  past  and  to  incite  our  present  and  future 
attornevs  to  uphold  and  maintain  the  lofty  standard  that  their  sires 
have  bequeathed  them. 


"Qfljc  lines  of  great  men  all  remiu^  ua 
(illjat  uie  can  make  out  Uues  sublime 

Au^  ^lu«8  leaite  beljiuti  us 

iJinotptints  on  tlje  saubs  of  time." 


BIOGRAPHICAL   NOTES  21/ 

Elisjia  S.  AbErxethv,  was  a  son  of  General  Russell  Abcr- 
nethy,  of  Torrin^on,  born  October  24.  1805.  He  entered  Yale 
College  when  sixteen  years  old  and  igraduated  in  1825.  Admitted 
to  the  bar  and  practiced  in  Waterbury,  removed  to  Torrington  and 
afterwards  to  Bridgeport,  where  he  was  the  Clerk  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  Fairfield  County  from  1859  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  i8(X). 

Andrew  Adams.  LL.D..  was  born  in  Stratford  in  \jj,6  and 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1760.  settled  in  Litchfield.  He 
rose  to  the  rank  of  Colonel  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  ^was  a 
member  of  the  Council  of  Safety  two  years,  of  the  State  Council 
for  nine  years,  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress  three  years 
and  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1779  and  1780. 
He  was  an  associate  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  for  four  years 
and  the  Chief  Justice  from  1793  to  the  time  of  his  decease, 
November  2^,  1797. 

The  Litchfield  Monitor  mentions  it  as  a  sad  and  singular  coin- 
cidence that  Governor  Wolcott  and  Chief  Justice  Adams  (the  two 
highest  official  dignitaries  of  tlie  State),  both  residing  in  the  same 
village  and  on  the  same  street  should  be  lying  apparently  at  the 
point  of  death  at  the  same  time.  Governor  Wolcott  survived  his 
distinguished  neighbor  only  three  days. 

Upon  a  rapidly  crumbling  marble  slab  in  the  West  burying 
ground  in  Litchfield,  is  the  following  epitaph  of  diis  eminent  man: 

"  In  memory  of  the  Hon.  Andrew  Adams,  Esq.,  Chief  Judge  of 
the  Superior  Court,  who  died  November  27,  1797,  in  the  63d  year 
of  his  age.  Having  filled  man\  distinguished  offices  with  great 
ability  and  dignity,  he  was  promoted  to  the  highest  judicial  office 
ni  the  State,  which  he  held  for  several  years,  in  which  his  eminent 
talents  shone  with  uncommon  lustre,  and  were  exerted  to  the  great 
advantage  of  the  public  and  the  honor  of  the  High  Court  in  which 
he  presided.  He  made  an  early  profession  of  religion,  and 
zealously  sought  to  promote  its  true  Interests.  He  lived  a  Life  and 
died  the  Death  of  a  Christian.  His  filial  Piety  and  paternal  tender- 
ness are  held  in  sweet  Remembrance."' 

Elijah  Adams,  was  a  son  of  Chief  Justice  Adams.  He  studied 
law  with  Judge  Reeve  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1795. 
practiced  his  profession  a  few  years  in  Litchfield  and  then  moved 
to  Geneva,  New  York. 

Samuel  Adams,  was  a  native  of  Milford,  Conn.,  but  in  early 
life  went  to  Stratford,  where  he  married  Mary  Fairchild.  He 
became  a  prominent  lawyer  and  a  Judge  of  the  Fairfield  County 
Court.  A  few  years  before  his  death,  which  occurred  November 
12.  1788,  in  his  85th  year,  he  removed  to  Litchfield  and  assisted 
his  son,  the  Hon.   Andrew  Adams,  in  his  extensive  practice.     His 


2l8  LITCHFIELD  CO  UN  TV  KENCII  AND  BAR 

widow  <licd  August  29,  1803,  in  the  106th  year  of  her  age.  having 
lived  in  three  centuries. 

Joiix  O.  Adams,  born  in  Cornwall,  November  2,  1837.  Was 
admitted  to  this  bar  in  1864,  and  located  at  West  Cornwall,  where 
he  ])racticed  until  April.  1872.  when  he  removed  to  Xegaunee, 
Michigan,  where  he  made  a  fortune  by  his  practice  and  successful 
mining  investments.  He  has  held  many  and  important  political  and 
executive  positions  and  is  widely  known. 

JoiiK  Ada]MS,  was  born  in  Canaan  June  22,  1785.  He  wa.3 
admitted  to  this  bar  in  1825.  He  carried  on  a  very  large  business 
in  the  iron  industry  at  Woodville,  in  the  town  of  Washington, 
and  was  interested  in  other  iron  works.  It  does  not  a])pear  that 
he  ever  practiced  law.  He  removed  to  Litchfield  and  from  thence 
to  Falls  \'illage  in  the  tow^n  of  Canaan,  where  he  died  about  1871. 

J.  Hi'XKY  ADA:sr,  only  son  of  John  Adams,  was  born  at  Wood- 
AJlle,  town  of  W'ashington,  December  29,  1822.  graduated  at  Yale 
College  1842.  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1844.  Soon  after  he 
removed  to  New  York  Citv  and  beg"an  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion, which  he  relinquished  and  became  interested  in  the  lighting 
of  the  city  ;  was  jiresident  of  the  gas  company  and  acquired  much 
wealth. 

JoTiiV  F.  Addis,  is  a  native  of  New  ^Milford.  Connecticut. 
Studied  law  with  his  uncle  John  S.  Turrill.  F.sq..  and  was  admitted 
to  this  bar  in  1882.  Resides  and  practices  in  his  native  town,  and 
is  Judge  of  Probate  for  the  district  of  New  Milford. 

Ed:moxd  Aikex,  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1790  from  Xor- 
tolk,  Connecticut.  He  practiced  in  that  town  and  was  also  engaged 
in  keeping  a  country  store.     lie  died  in  1807. 

Joiix  AiKLX  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1800  from  Sharon. 

Joiix  A.  Albro  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1821.  He  abandoned 
this  profession  and  became  a  clergyman. 

JoTix  Allf.x. — A  long  biography  of  this  eminent  attorney  will 
be  found  in  Boardman's  sketches.  ])age  45  of  this  book. 

On  a  simple  headstone  in  the  East  Cemetery  in  Litchfield  ap- 
pears the  following  epitaph  : 

To  the  memory  of  Joirx  .\i.l1':x,  Eso. 
Many  years  during  a  life  of  eminent  usefulness,  highly 
distinguished  for  his  integrity  and  ])atriotism  as  a 
member  of  the  Council  and  Su])reme  Court  of  Errors 
of  Connecticut,  and  no  less  distinguished  during  a 
period  interesting  and  critical  to  his  country  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Congress  of  the  L^nited  States. 

Born  June  12,  1763. 

Died  July  31.   181 2. 
Aged,  49  years. 


BIOGRAI'IIICAL  NOTES  2I9 

Henry  J.  Aij.Kx.  Sheriff  1884-1895.  He  was  born  in  ^lan- 
chester,  Connecticut.  ]\Iay  26,  1831.  He  came  to  Litchfield  County 
in  1859,  and  engaged  in  the  hotel  business  in  the  tlien  village  of 
"  Wolcottville  "'  as  the  proprietor  of  the  well  known  "■  Allen  House," 
which  he  kept  until  1880.  During  much  of  this  time  he  was  em- 
ployed as  an  agent  or  trustee  in  the  management  and  settlement 
of  large  estates,  and  was  very  successful  therein.  He  was  also 
a  constable  and  especially  noted  from  his  skill  in  collecting  doubt- 
ful claims.  He  enjoved  ]iolitical  life  and  was  a  shrewd  worker. 
In  1884  his  part}-  elected  him  Sherifif,  which  office  he  held  until 
1895.  when  he  was  defeated. 

He  had  the  unpleasant  duty  of  carrying-  into  effect  the  first  and 
only  execution  of  the  death  penalty  of  the  century.  His  great 
executive  ability  was  fully  felt  throughout  the  County.  After  his 
retirement  he  was  active  in  the  interests  of  the  Xew  York  ?^iutual 
Life  Insurance  Company,  of  which  he  had  been  an  agent  for  many 
years,  and  also  in  the  management  of  various  trust  estates.  He 
died  October  9,  1899.  ^i""^l  '""'^  funeral  at  Torrington  on  ( )ctober  ii 
was  remarkable  for  the  attendance  of  many  prominent  citizens  of 
the  State.     See  i)icture.  page  164. 

Charles  B.  Andrews.  LL.D..  was  born  in  Sunderland.  ^NTassa- 
chusetts,  in  1834.  Graduated  at  Amherst  College  in  1858.  Ad- 
mitted to  the  l)ar  of  Fairfield  County  in  1861.  and  began  his 
practice  in  the  town  of  Kent. 

hi  i8C>3  he  removed  to  Litchfield  and  formed  a  partnership  with 
Hon.  John  H.  Hubbard,  then  a  member  of  Congress.  He  was 
elected"  Senator  from  the  Fifteenth  District  in  1868  and  1869.  and 
was  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  committee  in  1869.  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  1878.  and  again  chairman  of  the 
Judiciary  Committee.  Was  elected  Governor  of  the  State  of  Con- 
necticut in  1879.  which  office  he  held  two  years.  Became  a  Judge 
oi  the  Superior  Court  in  1882  and  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  in  1889,  which  office  he  resigned  October  i.  1901.  He  was 
unanimously  elected  by  the  electors  of  Litchfield  member  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  1902.  of  which  body  he  was  the  presid- 
ing officer. 

He  died  suddenly  at  Litchfield  September  12.  1902.  His  legal 
obituary  is  in  the  seventy-fifth  volume  of  Connecticut  Reports,  from 
which  we  quote  the  tribute  jiaid  to  him  by  his  successor.  Chief 
Justice   Torrance: 

"  This  Court  is  full\-  sensible  of  the  distinguished  services 
rendered  to  this  State  by  Chief  Justice  Andrews,  and  expresses  its 
obligation  to  the  Attorney  General  for  the  appropriate  manner  in 
which  he  has  called  the  attention  of  the  bench  and  bar  to  them  on 
this  occasion. 


22() 


LITCHI^IELD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 


CHARLES    B.    ANDREWS. 


"  The  Practice  Act  was  enacted  with  the  warm  approval  of 
Governor  Andrews  in  1879.  Three  years  later,  it  became  his  duty, 
as  a  judi^e  of  the  Superior  Court,  to  aid  in  its  administration, — a 
work  which  he  continued  on  the  bench  of  that  and  of  this  court 
for  nearly  twenty  years.  ilut  the  re.q-ulation  of  legal  practice, 
however  important,  is  but  a  small  part  of  judicial  labor.  Chief 
Justice  Andrews  was  an  earnest  student  of  law  as  a  science, — of 
its  fundamental  ])rinciples,  and  philosophical  development.  Only 
such  an  one  could  have  written  such  an  opinion,  for  instance,  as 
that  from  his  ])en,  in  the  case  of  Wildman  7's.  Wildman,  70  Conn., 
700,  in  which  he  analyzes  with  so  much  clearness  and  precision  the 
nature  of  a  cause  of  action. 

"  He  was  the  seventeenth  in  the  line  of  Chief  Justices  who 
I^resided  in  this  court  during  the  first  hundred  and  seventeen  years 
of  its  history,  and  of  tliis  number,  only  Judges  Hosmer.  Williams 
and  Park  held  the  oitice  for  as  long  a  period. 

"  In  a  review  of  a  history  of  the  courts  of  Connecticut,  on  a 
public  occasion,  he  once  said  this,  '  In  every  government  of  laws, 
the  courts  hold  the  most  important  place.  The  legislature  may 
be  nominally  higher  than  the  judiciary,  but  in  the  actual  experience 


BIOGRAl'IIICAL  NOTE'S  221 

of    life,    the    courts    touch    the    citizen    more    frequently    and    more 
nearly  than  the  lawmaking  power.' 

''  Acting  under  his  conviction,  he  was  deeply  impressed  by  the 
responsibility  which  attaches  to  a  judicial  station.  It  was  his 
ambition  to  discharge  it  with  fidelity,  and  none  of  his  associates 
on  the  bench  failed  to  remark  the  earnestness  of  his  convictions 
cind  the  force  and  perspicuity  with  which  he  was  able  to  set  them 
±<irth.  On  the  pages  of  our  reports  they  have  become  interwoven 
with  the  jurisprudence  of  the  State  and  of  all  the  States." 

CiiARi.KS  \V.  Andrews,  only  son  and  child  of  Judge  Charles  B. 
Andrews,  was  born  in  Litchfield  Novem])er  21,  1874.  Was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1902.     He  located  in  Hartford. 

Edward  Warren  Andrews,  born  at  Windham.  Connecticut, 
July.  181 1,  a  son  of  Rev.  William  Andrews.  Was  at  L'nion  College 
but  did  not  graduate,  studied  law  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar 
in  1834.  He  was  for  a  time  partner  of  the  Hon.  Truman  Smith 
at  Litchfield.  He  gave  up  the  practice  of  law.  studied  theology 
and  was  settled  in  1837  over  the  Congregational  Chruch  at  West 
Hartford.  About  1841  he  went  to  New  York  to  be  pastor  of  the 
Broadway  Tabernacle  Church,  .\fter  some  years  he  went  to  Troy 
as  the  pastor  of  a  Presbyterian  church.  He  gave  up  preaching  and 
established  a  school  at  Cornwall.  Comiecticut.  He  was  sent  to  the 
Legislature  in  1851.  He  then  gave  up  teaching  and  resumed  the 
practice  of  law  in  Xew  York  City.  In  the  war  of  1861  he  was 
a  captain  and  was  made  assistant  adjutant  general  under  General 
ivlorris  at  Fort  ]\IcHenry.  Baltimore.  After  the  war  he  practiced 
law  for  a  short  time  in  \\'est  \irginia.  He  then  returned  to  New 
York  but  soon  left  his  profession.  He  died  September.  1895,  at 
Chicago,  Illinois. 

S.\:\iri;i,  Jami;s  .Andrews,  son  of  Rev.  W^illiam  .Xndrews.  born 
at  Danbury.  Connecticut.  July.  1817.  Graduated  at  Williams 
College  in  1839.  Studied  law  in  Hartford  and  Boston  and  was 
admitted  to  this  bar  in  1842.  was  also  admitted  in  New  York  City 
and  removed  to  Ohio  and  was  re-admitted  there.  In  1844  he  left 
the  law  and  studied  theology,  and  was  settled  as  pastor  of  the  Con- 
gregational Church  at  East  Windsor.  Connecticut.  1848.  Dismissed 
1855.  He  became  an  author  and  student  for  some  years,  and  in 
]868  took  charge  of  the  "  Catholic  Apostolic  "  congregation  in 
Hartford.  He  died  in  Hartford  October.  1906.  James  P.  Andrews 
the  present  re])orter  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors,  is  one  of  his 
sons. 

CuRTiss  V>.  Atwood  was  born  in  Bethlehem  in  1845.  Was 
educated  at  Stamford  Academy,  New  York,  and  at  Brandon  Sem- 
inary, Vermont.     Studied  law  with  Webster  and  O'Xeil  in  Water- 


222  IJTCIII-IKUJ  COLXTY   liKNCJI   AXD   I'.AR 

bur_y,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  New  Haven  in  1879.  Now 
resides  at  Watertown  but  is  not  in  active  ])ractice.  Represented  his 
town  in  the  Legislature  of  1905. 

Rai,s.\:mox  C.  Austix.  was  a  son  of  the  Hon.  Aaron  Austin, 
born  in  Xew  Hartford,  graduated  from  Vale  College  in  1801,  and 
was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1808.  He  practiced  a  short  time  at 
Litchfield  and  then  located  in.  Peekskill,  New  York.  He  died  at 
Washington.  D.  C,  September   19,   1840. 

RocKR  A\t-:rii.l,  born  at  Salisbury,  August  4.  1809.  Graduated 
at  Lhiion  College.  1832.  Admitted  to  this  bar  in  1834  and  practiced 
at  Salisbury  until  1849.  when  he  removed  to  Danbury.  where  he 
had  a  successful  practice  and  held  many  important  oiTices  and  was 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  State  during  the  four  years  of  the  Civil 
v/ar.  He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  American  Bar  Asso- 
ciation. He  died  in  Danbury.  December  9.  1883.  (Obituary  in 
50th  Conn.  Report. )      See  Warner's  Reminiscences. 

Russell  W.  Ayres,  of  W^aterburw  admitted  1869.  He  gradu- 
ated at  Yale.  1868.  and  afterwartls  at  Harvard  Law  School.  He 
was  the  founder  of  the  shore  resort  at  Woodmont,  Connecticut.  He 
died  December  14,  1873. 

Asa  Bacox".  a  native  of  Canterbury.  Connecticut,  born  Feliruary 
8,  177 1,  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1793,  and  was  admitted  to 
this  bar  in  1795.  After  practicing  in  various  ])laces  he  removed 
to  Litchfield  in  1806.  where  for  many  years  he  held  a  leatling  i:)Osition 
at  the  bar.  He  died  in  Xew  Haven  in  1857.  (See  Boardman  and 
Sedgwick's  sketches.)  His  ])icture  appears  in  the  Bacon  group, 
page  62. 

Epapiiroditis  Cita.mpiox'  B.acox'.  a  son  of  Asa  Bacon,  born  in 
Lichfield  in  t8io.  Graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1833.  and  was 
admitted  to  this  bar  in  1840.  He  died  at  Seville  in  Spain.  January 
li,   1845.      I'icture  on  page  62. 

CjKxi-.kal  Francis  B.\cox  was  another  son  of  Asa  B>ac(»n.  born 
in  Litchfield  January  6,  1819.  and  graduated  at  Yale  College  in 
1838.  \\';is  admitted  t<»  this  bar  in  1840;  he  was  a  xoung  man  of 
great  ])romise.  holding  a  high  rank  as  a  lawyer,  antl  took  great 
interest  in  military  afi:'airs.  rising  to  the  rank  of  Alajor  General 
of  the  State  militia.  His  death  occurred  September  16,  1849. 
picture  on  ])age  62. 

Wn.LAKi)  r>\Ki:K  was  admitted  t<>  this  bar  in  1881.  He  located 
and  resides  in  Sharon.  He  has  a  large  otHce  ])ractice  and  real  estate 
business. 

P>iRi)SKY  Baldwin,  born  in  Goshen.  February  3,  1786.  Studied 
law  at  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  ])ractice  in   181 1. 


niOCRAl'iriCAL  NOTES 


223 


He  lived  and  practiced  in  his  native  town  nntil  1841.  when  he  re- 
moved to  West  CornwaU,  where  he  (Hed  April  zy ,  1858.  His  pic- 
ture is  on  page   115. 

George  B ai.dwjx,  a  native  of  Washington,  Connecticut,  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  har  in  1840.  He  relinquished  the  law  for  other  pur- 
suits. 

George  H.  IJalowix.  Sheriff 
1 869- 1 878.  He  died  in  Litch- 
field Decemher  2,  1879.  The 
following"  obituary  of  him  ap- 
])eared  in  the  Litchfield  £//- 
qmrcv : 

"( )ur  readers  will  notice, 
\\  itii  dee]i  reg^ret,  the  death  of 
ex-Sheriff  George  W.  Bald- 
win, which  occurred  at  his 
residence  in  this  village  on 
Tuesday  morning'.  Mr.  Bald- 
win was  horn  on  the  20th  of 
September,  1827,  and  had  en- 
tered upon  his  53d  year.  His 
father.  Captain  Daniel  Bald- 
win, was  a  man  of  great  ener- 
g\\  and  the  sun  was  of  a  simi- 
lar nature.  After  a  good  edu- 
cation in  our  villag'e  schools, 
he  served  an  apprenticeship  in 
the   h'.nciuirer  office.     He  sub- 


Gl-;ORGE    [J.    J!A1.I>W  I  V 


secjuently  ])ublished.  for  a  short  time,  the  Litchfield  Republican, 
a  democratic  j^aper.  antl  w^as  the  first  publisher  of  the  Sentinel. 
He  was  postmaster  here  for  eight  years.  Judg'e  of  Probate  for  one 
year,  and  Sheriff'  of  the  county  for  nine  years.  He  represented 
the  town  in  the  (jcneral  Assembly  in  1861,  held  the  ofiice  of  town 
clerk  for  five  years,  from  1858  to  1863,  and  was  first  selectman  for 
several  years  succeeding'.  His  friends  were  warmly  attached  to 
him.  and  he  was  noted  for  his  g'enerosity  and  neighborly  kindness. 
]n  his  famil\-,  he  was  a  devoted  husband  and  father,  and  his  excellent 
widow'  and  children  have  the  heartfelt  sympath}'  of  the  entire  com- 
munity." 

Isaac  Baldwin,  was  born  in  Milford.  Connecticut,  February  22, 
1715-16.  His  father  removed  to  Durham  and  subsequentlv  to 
Litchfield. 

He  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1735.  and  studied  theology 
and  was  licensed  to  ])reach  in  1737.  He  was  never  settled  in  this 
profession,  but  occasiiMially  preached  in  neighboring  churches. 


224  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY   BLXCII  AKD  PAR 

He  married  a  daitg-hter  of  Parson  Collins,  the  eccentric  minister 
of  Litchfield,  bought  a  farm  and  went  to  farmint;^.  His  services 
were  soon  demanded  in  public  affairs  and  for  many  years  he  was 
a  prominent  man  in  town  and  county  matters.  He  represented  his 
town  in  the  General  Assembly  ten  sessions,  and  was  town  clerk  for 
thirty-one  years  (1742-1773.) 

He  was  clerk  of  the  Probaite  Court  for  the  district  of  Litchfield 
for  twenty-nine  years,  and  was  the  first  clerk  of  the  County  Court, 
which  oflice  he  held  for  forty-two  years  (1751-1793-)  He  died  in 
Litchfield  January  15,  1805. 

Isaac  Baldwin.  Jr..  born  at  Litchfield  November  12,  1753. 
Graduated  at  Yale  in  1774.  Admitted  to  the  bar  and  practiced  at 
Litchfield  until  1812,  wlien  he  removed  to  Fompey,  New  York, 
where  he  died  in  1830. 

Ror.KK  SiiKRMAX  Baldwix,  born  in  New  Haven.  Connecticut 
in  1793.  Was  a  member  of  the  Litchfield  Law  School,  and  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  this  county  in  1813.  He  located  in  his  native  city, 
where  he  died  February   19,   1863. 

lYobalily  no  lawyer  ever  attained  in  Connecticut  a  higher  rank 
at  the  bar  than  that  which  was  generally  conceded  to  Governor 
Jjaldwin  by  his  professional  brethren,  and  few  men  have  filled  more 
public  otlices  than  he.  ( For  a  more  extended  sketch  of  him  see 
ol'ituary  in  30th  Conn.  Report.) 

Sa.mi'Kl  S.  1>.\ld\V]\  was  born  in  Litchfield,  and  graduated  at 
Yale  College  in  1801.  Was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1803  as  of 
Litchfield.     He  died  in  1854. 

WiLLrA:\L  Baldwlx,  lawyer  at  Salisljury  1842.  (Conn.  Regis- 
ter.) 

Lutiii:k  T.  Ball  was  born  in  Salisbury,  studied  law  with  Judge 
D.  J.  Warner  and  at  Ballston.  New  York,  and  was  admitted  to  this 
bar  in  1854.  He  removed  to  Blinois.  where  he  ac([uired  a  good 
reputation  as  a  lawyer.  In  the  Civil  W'ar  he  was  an  othcer  of  the 
Eighty-fourth  Illinois  regiment  and  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Mur- 
freesboro,  December,  1862,  and  l)urie(]  on  the  field. 

LoRKix  1k\rxks  studied  in  the  law  school.  Was  admitted  in 
1807  and  ])ractice(l  a  short  time  in  Bristol. 

Hp:nkn'  S.  15.\Kr,()iK  was  a  native  of  Canton,  Connecticut.  P)0rn 
August  2.  1822.  Studied  law  at  Yale  Law  School  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  bar  in  1849.  He  practiced  at  Torrington  for  twenty- 
one  years,  when  he  removed  to  Hartford,  where  he  died  September 
21,   1 89 1. 

Syl\'Hstkr  Baki'.oi'r  was  a  lirotlur  of  Henry  S.  Barbour  and 
])ractice(l  law  a  short  time  about  1861  at  New  Hartford  and  is  now 
in  ])ractice  in   Hartford. 


lilOGRAl'illCAI,  NOTKS  225 

Anson  Bates,  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1820.  The  History  of 
Hartford  County  says  he  practiced  law  at  East  Granby  1831-1869. 

RoKKRT  C.  Bates,  admitted  to  the  bar  in  181 1  as  of  SaHsbury. 

JosiAii  B.  BatTELL,  born  in  Woodbury  March  i,  1776.  Ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1799  as  of  Torrington.  Died  ^lay  7,  1843,  "^^ 
Torrington. 

Jesse  Beach  was  born  in  Litclifield  in  17O9.  He  studied  law 
with  Judge  Reeve  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1791.  The  next 
year  he  married  Sall\-  Wheeler,  of  Derby,  to  which  place  he  moved 
and  practiced  law  there  until  l8or,  when  he  removed  to  Redding, 
Connecticut. 

J.  Gail  Beckwitii.  Jr.,  was  born  in  Litchfield  in  1874.  Gradu- 
ated at  l^nion  College  in  1896.  Studied  at  Albany  Law  School 
and  in  the  offices  of  Terry  cv  lironson  and  L.  F.  i>uri)ee  in  Water- 
bury,  where  he  engaged  in  practice  for  a  short  time.  He  served 
as  Corporal  of  Company  A,  Tenth  l>attalion.  First  Xew  York 
Volunteers,  from  April,  i8(j8,  to  April,  1899.  The  regiment  was 
ordered  for  service  in  the  Lhilip]Mnes,  but  only  went  as  far  as 
Honolulu.  Was  admitted  t<>  the  Litchfield  bar  in  1899.  Was  a 
deputy  shcrilT  under  SheritT  M  iddlebrook.  Is  engaged  m  jour- 
nalism. 

HE/ci:ki\ii  Li:i;cii  i:k.  was  born  in  I'.ethlehem.  the  son  of  Abra- 
b.am  lieecher.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1854.  He  removed 
to,  and  was  an  early  settler  of  Fort  Dodge,  Iowa.     Is  now  deceased. 

PlliLEMox  I')Kixiii:r.  a  native  of  Kent,  was  burn  in  1773  and  was 
admitted  to  this  bar  in  1800  as  from  SharcMi.  He  soon  removed  to 
Lancaster,  Ohio.  Henry  Howe  in  his  Historical  Collections  says 
of  him:  "He  represented  this  district  in  Congress  from  1817  to 
1827,  and  died  about  1840.  Was  in  politics  a  whig,  and  a  man  of 
fine  address  and  presence.  He  it  was  who  gave  Thomas  Ewing 
liis  first  law  business  of  any  moment.  The  ver\'  elegant  Henry 
Stanbery,  who  began  his  law  practice  in  Lancaster,  and  lived  there 
for  many  years,  married  for  his  first  wife  the  daughter  of  Mr. 
Beecher.  He  later  lived  at  Columbus  and  in  the  vicinitx*  of  Cin- 
cinnati, and  ended  his  professional  career  as  Attorney  General  of 
the  I'nited  States  under  General  Jackson." 

Truman  Beecher.  admitted  in  1818  from  Kent.  \\'as  a 
student  of  the  law  school. 

Frederick  Beers  was  born  in  Woodbury  July  23.  1785  and 
was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1815.  He  died  in  Woodbury  on  Decem- 
ber 6,  1828,  at  the  age  of  43. 


226  LITCHFIELD  COUXTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

George  W.  Beers  was  a  son  of  Hon.  Seth  P.  Beers  and  was 
born  in  Litchfield  February  i8,  1817.  He  graduated  from  Trinity 
Colleg'e  in  1839.  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1842.  He  never 
j)racticed  his  ])rofession.  Init  was  an  assistant  for  his  father  in 
the  care  and  manag'ement  of  the  immense  interests  of  the  School 
Fund  in  the  Western  Reserve  of  Ohio.     He  died  at  Litchfield. 

LivW'is  F.  Hkeks  was  admitted  in  1864  to  this  bar  from  Winsted. 
He  studied  with  Judge  Gideon  Hall,  and  remained  in  his  office 
in  Winsted  a  short  time  after  Judg'e  Hall's  death  .when  he  removed 
to  South  Norwalk,  where  he  died  February  15.  1872. 

Setii  1'.  1')i;i:ks,  a  native  of  W'^oodbury,  born  July  4.  1781.  Was 
a  student  of  the  Litchfield  Law  School  from  1803  to  1805,  when 
he  was  admitted  to  this  Imr  and  settled  in  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession in  Litchfield,  where  he  died  September  9,  1862.  He  had  a 
larg'e  clientage  and  occupied  many  ]M)siti()ns  of  trust.  He  was 
State's  Attorney  for  the  county  1820  to  1825.  His  principal  work 
was  commissioner  of  the  School  Fund  of  Connecticut  from  1824 
to  1849,  ^  period  of  twenty-five  years,  during-  which  time  the  settle- 
ment of  a  very  large  number  of  contested  land  claims  and  titles  in 
the  Ohio  land,  known  as  the  Western  Reserve,  had  to  be  adjusted 
bv  him.  it  is  largely  through  his  legal  and  financial  ability  that 
our  present  school  fund  of  $2,000,000  exists.  Died  September  9, 
1862  at  Litchfield.     (See  Sedgwick's  address.)     Picture  on  page  92. 

Fki'.di'.kick  1).  B);i:.M\N.  was  a  native  of  Warren,  graduated 
at  Yale,  class  of  1842,  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  18-16,  and 
settled  and  began  ])ractic.e  in  Litchfield.  In  1855  he  was  appointed 
clerk  of  the  Superior  Court,  which  office  he  held  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  August  i,  i860,  aged  38  years.     Picture  on  page  138. 

ChariJ'S  C).  ]^)Eeden',  born  in  JNTontecello,  New  York,  in  1827, 
was  admitted  to  practice  in  1848.  After  practicing  a  short  time  at 
Litchfield  he  removed  to  Milwaukee,  W^isconsin.  Tn  1861  he  took 
an  active  ])art  in  the  Civil  War,  organizing  the  Sixty-seventh  New 
York  Volunteers,  of  which  he  was  the  Lieutenant  Colonel  and  was 
in  several  engagements.  At  the  close  of  the  war  his  health  failed 
and  he  was  miable  to  follow  his  profession.  He  died  in  Litchfield 
November  22,  1870. 

Josi'.i'ii  11.  Ui'.i.i.A.MN',  a  nati\'e  of  IJethlehem,  was  a  grandson  of 
the  celeljrated  divine  Joseph  Bellamy,  D.  1).  lie  graduated  at  Yale 
Colleg-e  in  1808,  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  i8to  and  resided 
nnd  practiced  in  lielhlehem,  where  lie  died  in  1848.  (  See  Sedg- 
wick's Address.) 

At\ios  Benedict,  born  iti  IMiddlebury,  Connecticut,  July  6,  1780, 
graduated  at  Yale  College  1800,  studied  law  in  the  Litchfield  Law 


BIOGRAl'IllCAL  XOTES  22/ 

School  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1803.  After  practicing  a 
short  time  in  Litchfield  he  removed  to  Watertown,  New  York. 
He  died  in  1816  while  on  a  visit  to  Litchfield. 

Noah  B.  Benedict,  l)(>rn  in  Woodbury,  April  2,  1771.  Gradu- 
ated at  Yale  1788.  Admitted  to  the  bar  in  1792  and  died  July  2, 
1831.  He  was  one  of  the  most  learned  and  distinguished  lawyers 
in  the  State.  (See  Boardman's  sketches  and  Sedgwick's  Address 
and  note  in  8th  Conn.  Report  426.  also  obituary  in  15th  Conn. 
Keport.)  His  portrait  is  on  page  58,  taken  from  an  old  nainting 
in  the  Woodbury  Probate  office. 

MiLo  L.  Bennett,  admitted  in  1813,  as  of  Sharon.  Removed 
to  Vermont  and  was  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  that  State. 

Heman  Berry,  admitted   1796.  as  of  Kent. 

ToiiN  B.  Betts,  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1882;  practiced  a  short 
time  in  New  Hartford  ;  removed  to  the  West.  He  died  in  Beatrice, 
Nebraska,  and  was  buried  in  New  Hartford,  January  24,   1902. 

Wiij.iA.M  W.  BiDWEEi..  born  in  Colebrook  in  1850  and  admitted 
to  this  bar  in  1858,  located  in  Collinsville,  where  he  practiced  his 
profession  and  was  killed  by  accident  in   1894. 

Wii.i.iA.M  W.  BiERCK  was  born  at  Cornwall  Ikidge  in  1863; 
graduated  at  Williams  College  in  1885  and  was  admitted  to  this 
bar  in  1891.  Is  now  in  practice  at  Torrington,  where  he  was  the 
town  clerk  and  town  prosecuting  attorney,  and  is  also  one  of  the 
prosecuting  agents  for  Litchfield  County. 

Henry  A.  Bills,  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1851,  practiced  a  short 
time  in  Winsted.  Connecticut.  Published  for  some  years  the  Win- 
sted  NcTVs,  and  then  followed  other  avocations.  He  died  June 
24,  1892. 

Hon.  Jt)iix  Bird,  born  in  IJlchheld,  November  22,  1768,  gradu- 
ated at  Yale  College  in  1786,  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1789,  and 
after  a  practice  of  five  years  removed  to  Troy,  New  York,  where 
he  resided  until  his  death  in  1806.  During  these  few  years  he  held 
manv  important  positions  and  uas  a  member  of  Congress. 

EowARn  BissELL,  a  native  of  Litchfield,  born  November  2y, 
]8o8,  and  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1832.  He  afterwards  entered 
the  United  States  naval  service,  and  died  January  24,  1876. 

Edward  Bissell,  born  in  Pitchfield,  December  16,  1827.  and 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1851.  and  at  the  Yale  Law  School  in 
1853.  and  was  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1853.  He  removed  to  Fond 
du  Lac,  Wisconsin,  where  he  now  resides. 


228  IJTCIIFIKIJ)  COUNTY  KltXCIl   AND  I'-AK 

Francis  BissEi.l,  born  in  Litchfield  April  16.  1852.  and  ad- 
mitted to  this  bar  in  1875.  He  ]jracticed  a  short  time  in  New  Hart- 
ford ,  then  went  into  the  insurance  business,  from  which  he  retired, 
and  is  now  engaged  in  agriculture  at  IJantam. 

EbenezEk  B.  Blackman,  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1817, 
admitted  to  this  bar  in  1822  and  practiced  at  Sharon,  whence  he 
removed  to  I'rookfield  in  1840  and  died  there  in  1863. 

Lewis  J.  BeakE,  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1874  and  began  practice 
in  Litchfield,  but  soon  removed  west,  and  is  now  a  law  stenographer 
and  teacher  at  ( )maha,  Nebraska. 

J.  W.  BlakESEEE,  admitted  in   1866,  as  of  Plymouth. 

SamlEE  C.  Be.\kEEEv,  admitted  in  1800  from  Roxburv. 

^^'IEEIAM  H.  Beodgett.  a  native  of  Canaan.  Admitted  to  this 
bar  in  1903.  He  located  in  W'insted  and  is  now  Town  Prosecuting 
Attorney.  He  was  assistant  clerk  of  the  Connecticut  House  of 
Representatives  in  1907. 

D.W'ii)  SiiER-MAN  BoAKD.MAN,  b(trn  in  New  Alilford  in  1768, 
graduated  at  Yale  in  1793  and  admitted  to  this  bar  in  171;.^.  He 
located  and  practiced  all  his  lifetime  in  his  native  town,  where  he 
died  December  2.  1864.  President  Porter,  of  Yale  College,  in  his 
sketch  of  Mr.  Boardman,  published  in  the  history  of  New  Milford, 
says:  "There  have  been  few,  if  any  of  the  inhabitants  oi  New 
Alilford  since  its  settlement,  who  deserve  to  be  more  honored  than 
this  ])ure  minded,  sagacious  and  nol)le  hearted  man."  He  is  the 
author  of  the  sketches  published  herewith.     See  Sedgwick's  Address. 

George  S.  Boardman.  a  native  of  New  Milford,  son  of  Hon. 
lilijah  Boardman,  born  1799.  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1820  and  died 
in  New  Milford  1825.      (See  Sedgwick's  Address.) 

WiEi.iA.M  W'lirriNG  I'.oAKD.MAX.  another  son  of  Hon.  Elijah 
Boardman  was  born  1794  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1812  and 
admitted  to  this  bar  in  1818.  fie  removed  to  New  Haven,  where  he 
had  a  large  {practice  and  held  many  i)ublic  offices — member  of  Con- 
gress, etc.     Died  August  27,  1871. 

WiEi.iA.M  1).  r.oSEER,  born  in  New  York  City  Februarv  23.  1877. 
Studied  law  with  L.  J.  Nickenson,  of  West  Cornwall,  and  admitted 
to  this  bar  in  i<;02.  Commenced  practice  at  West  Cornwall,  but  in 
1906  he  removed  to  New  York  City,  and  is  now  connected  with  the 
District  Attorney's  office. 

CiiAKi.Ks  i'.os'iwicK  was  born  in  New  Milford,  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1796,  and  studied  law  under  Judge  Reeve,  of  Litchfield, 
I'egun   to  practice  his   profession  lint   subsequently   went   into  com- 


BIOGKAl'JIICAL  NOTES 


229 


mercial  pursuits  in  New  York.  Later  he  removed  to  Bridgeport, 
where  he  was  elected  mayor  in  1840  and  served  afterwards  as  city 
judge. 

Joseph  A.  Bostwick.  of  Xew  ]^Iilford.  admitted  in  1804. 

Sami'EL  Bostwick  was  horn  in  Xew  Milford  in  1755  and  gradu- 
ated  at  Yale  College  in  1780.  He  practiced  law  in  his  native  town 
until  liis  death.  April  3.  1799. 

Hkxrv  a.  Botsford  was 
born  in  W'atertown  in  1821 
and  died  at  Hartford,  April 
14,  1895.  He  was  Sheriff 
from  1866  to  1869.  He 
came  to  Litchfield  from 
Salishurv.  where  he  had 
lieen  deputy  sheriff  for  ten 
years  and  about  1870  he  re- 
inoved  to  Winsted  and  in 
1872  to  Hartford  and  en- 
gaged in  the  v.holesale  Chi- 
cago dressed  beef  business. 
He  received  the  first  car  of 
that  commodity  from  Chi- 
cago shii)ped  to  any  poiut 
in  Xew  England,  except  to 
r.ostcMi.  He  was  a  genial, 
kind-hearted  gentleman  and 
made  no  enemies  in  his  of- 
ficial and  business  hfe. 

IIEXKV    A.    llOTSrORD 

John  A.  Bol'Ghtox  was  admitted  to  this  l:)ar  in  1862.  He  soon 
removed  to  Bridgeport.  Conn.  He  was  for  man\'  years  connected 
with  the  internal  revenue  service.  Is  not  now  in  the  practice  of  his 
legal  profession. 

Joiix  BovD  was  born  in  ^\'insted  March  17,  1799.  He  graduated 
at  Yale  College  in  1821  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Xew  Haven 
County  in  1825,  and  to  this  bar  in  1826.  Representative  in  the 
General  Assembly  1830  and  1835  ;  County  Commissioner  1840,  1849 
and  1850;  State  Senator  1854,  and  President  pro  fciii :  inwn  clerk 
of  Winchester  about  thirty  years  and  died  in   1881. 

He  was  Secretary  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  1859,  i860  and 
i86r.  One  of  the  mottoes  used  in  some  of  the  political  campaigns 
of  the  State  was,  "  Give  us  your  hand,  honest  John  Boyd."  He 
compiled   and   published   the   annals   of   Winchester.      It   is   to   him 


1 

\ 

1 

^^Bk  v^      1 

1 

'^^KV. 

^ 

l'"^-   m 

1 

1 

230  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  P.KXCIl  AM)  I'.AK 

that  the  State  is  in(lel)ted  for  the  preservation  of  so  much  as  re- 
mains of  the  original  charter  granted  by  King"  Charles  II.  In  i6g8 
the  duplicate  of  the  patent  was  by  the  Governor  and  council  placed 
m  the  hands  of  Captain  Joseph  Wadswurth  "  in  a  very  troublesome 
season  when  our  constitution  was  struck  at  ""  and  was  safely  kept 
and  preserved  bv  him  until  Mav  1715.  This  liistory  is  worth  rccord- 
mg"  here. 

*'  In  1817  or  1816,  while  Mr.  Wnyd  was  ])re|)aring  for  college  at 
the  Hartford  Crammar  School,  he  Ijoarded  in  the  family  of  Rev. 
Dr.  Flint,  of  the  South  Church,  Hartford. 

"Coming  one  day  from  school  he  noticed  on  the  workstand  of 
Mrs.  Bissell.  the  doctor's  mother-in-law,  a  dingy  piece  of  parchment, 
covered  on  one  side  with  black  letter  manuscript.  In  answer  to  his 
in(|uiries  .Mrs.  Fussell  told  him  that  having  occasion  for  some  paste- 
board her  friend  and  neighbor.  Mrs.  Wyllys,  had  sent  her  this. 
Mr.  Boyd  ]iroposed  to  procure  her  a  ])iece  of  pasteboard  in  ex- 
change for  the  parchment,  to  which  Mrs.  Bissell  consented.  It 
was  not.  however,  until  si.x  or  eight  year^  had  elapsed  when  Mr. 
Bo}(l  examined  the  i)archment  with  care,  when  he  learned  for  the 
iirst  time  that  he  had  what  he  thought  and  was  generally  thought, 
until  recently,  was  a  duplicate  of  the  charter." 

The  Colonial  Record.  A'ol.  IV..  ])u])lished  in  1868.  says: 

"The  original  charter,  which  now  hangs  in  the  secretary's  oflRce 
at  Hartford,  is  engraved  on  three  skins.  The  duplicate  was  written 
on  two.  So  much  of  the  (lu])licate  as  remains  Ijeing  about  three- 
fourths  of  the  second  skin,  is  now  in  the  library  of  the  Connecicut 
Historical  Society,  where  it  was  placed  by  Hon.  John  Boyd,  late 
Secretary  of  State." 

Xot  long  ago,  however,  search  was  made  through  the  records  in 
London  and  it  was  found  that  five  ])ounds  was  the  fee  paid  for 
drafting  the  original  charter  and  twenty  shillings  for  the  duiilicate. 
I'.xamination  of  the  documents  showed  tliat  twenty  shillings  was 
\-.ritten  (probably  a  memorandum)  on  the  sui>])osed  original  charter 
and  five  ])oun(ls  on  the  supposed  du])Iicate  so  that  now  it  is  certain 
that  the  one  saved  by  Mr.  Bo}'d  was  the  original  and  the  one  that 
hung  for  years  in  the  secretary's  office  and  has  been  recently  hung  in 
the  State  library  is  the  duplicate. 

The  Mrs.  Wyllys  spoken  of  was  related  to  the  former  Secretary 
of  the  State  by  that  name  and  the  iiarchment  was  probably  found 
whh  his  efifects. 

Connecticut  lived  under  this  charter  until  1818,  forty-two  years 
after  the  Declaration  of  Independence.'' 

Al•.l^\ll AM  l'>KAi)i,i;v,  JK.,  was  born  in  Litchfield  I7''>7.  Studied 
law  with  judge  Reeve  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1791.  He 
located  in  the  valley  of  the  Wyoming,  Pennsylvania.  Soon  after  he 
accei)ted  a   i)osition   under  Colonel   Bickering,  then  the   Postmaster 


ijk)<;kai'jiical  notes 


231 


General  of  the  I'nited  States  at  Washington.  He  removed  to 
Washington,  P.  C,  and  was  assistant  postmaster  general,  under 
various  administrations  for  nearly  forty  years.  He  and  his  hrother. 
Phineas,  were  the  real  organizers  of  the  postotHce  department  of 
the  United  States. 

Ai.i;i':i<T  i'.  liKAOSTRKiCT  was  burn  in  Thumaston  in  184O,  gradu- 
ated at  Yale  College  in  1871.  and  Columbia  Law  School  in  1873. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1874  and  took  up  practice  in  Thomas- 
ton.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1872-78,  and  in 
1881  and  1882  was  elected  to  the  Senate  from  the  Sixteenth  District, 
being  the  first  Republican  who  was  returned  from  that  district  for 
several  years.  He  was  town  clerk  of  Thomaston  from  1875  to 
1891,  and  Judge  of  Probate  from  1872  to  1890.  In  1879  he  was 
appointed  deputy  judge  of  the  Waterbury  district  court  and  in 
1883  he  was  elected  Judge  of  the  same  court,  being  re-elected  in 
1887  and  1893.     He  is  now  in  ])usiness  in  Xew  YcM'k  Citw 

Nklsox  Hkkwstkk  was  admitted  from  Cornwall  in  1824.  He 
resided  in  Goshen  and  had  a  very  limited  practice.     He  died  in  1850. 

Ja.mivS  T.  r)Ki:i:.\  was  admitted  from  W  instetl  in  1881,  located  in 
the  "West. 

DaMHI.      X.     JjRIXS-MAUl';, 

of  Washington,  was  the  son 
of  the  Rev.  Daniel  Brins- 
made,  the  second  pastor  of 
the  Society  of  Judea,  after- 
wards the  town  of  \Vash- 
ington.  He  was  born  in 
1750,  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1772,  read  law 
at  Sharon  and  was  admitted 
to  this  bar  and  settled  in 
his  native  town,  where  he 
practiced  his  ])rofession  for 
more  than  iifty  years.  In 
1787  he  was  a  delegate  to 
the  convention  at  Hartford 
that  ratified  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 
He  was  justice  of  the  quo- 
rum and  assistant  judge  of 
the  County  Court  for  six- 
teen vears.     He  represent- 

DAXIKI,   X.    BRI.VSMADI'  i    i   ■'    ^  •       ^1        t         V1^ 

ed  his  town  m  the  Legisla- 
ture during  fortv-three  sessions  and  was  one  session  clerk  of  the 
House  of  Representatives.     He  died  in  1826. 


232  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  I'.KNCH  AND  BAR 

Clifford  E.  Bristol  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1882  ami  began 
practice  at  Norfolk  and  then  removed  to  Plainville.  He  now  resides 
in  Winsted  and  is  engaged  in  mercantile  business. 

AIerritt  IjKoxson  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1855  from  New 
Hartford. 

Bennett  Bronson  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  in  1797  and 
admitted  to  tliis  bar  in  1802  as  of  Southbury.  He  was  born  No- 
vember 14,  1775,  iu  W'aterbury.  He  became  a  prominent  man  in 
Waterburv,  as  lawver  and  banker,  and  died  there  December  11, 
1850. 

Charles  R.  Brown  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  18 16  from  Sharon. 

Samuel  Brownson  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  New  Mil- 
ford  and  its  town  clerk  from  17 14  to  1733.  He  was  its  first  justice 
of  the  peace  and  also  Judge  of  the  New  Haven  County  Court  and 
died  in  1733.  He  acted  as  attorney  for  the  town  on  several  occa- 
sions and  is  said  to  have  been  an  attorney  in  fact. 

Roger  Brownson  was  a  brother  of  Samuel  and  succeeded  him 
in  the  office  of  town  clerk  in  New  Milford  and  was  there  justice  of 
the  peace  for  a  number  of  years.     He  died  in  1758. 

Norton  J.  BuEL,  born  in  Salisbury  September  13.  1813.  Studied 
law  wth  General  vSedgwick  and  Judge  Seymour  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1834.  Removed  to  New  Haven  County  and  died  in 
New  Haven  March  6,  1864.     See  Warner's  reminiscences. 

Ei'APMRL'S  W.  Bull,  born  in  Danbury  in  1805,  and  was  admitted 
to  this  l)ar  in  1825.  He  went  South  in  1830  and  was  reported  to 
have  been  killed  ])y  the  Indians  in  Texas  in  its  war  of  1840. 

W'n.LLx.M  IjURKE  was  born  in  Ireland  in  1820,  came  to  Amer- 
ica in  1838  and  following  the  example  of  Roger  Sherman,  settled 
:n  New  Milford.  and  while  earning  his  living  by  shoemaking,  studied 
law  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1868.  He  removed  to  Dan- 
luu-y  in  i86(j,  and  resided  there  at  the  time  of  his  <leath  in  1890. 
'i'he  History  of  Danbury  says  of  him :  "In  social  matters  his 
kmdness  of  heart,  his  ever  ready  smile  and  cordial  bearing,  his 
I)right  and  sunny  disposition,  and  his  uprightness  and  strength  of 
character  made  him  many  warm  friends,  who  will  long  cherush  a 
pleasant  memory  of  him." 

William  M.  Burrall  was  a  native  of  Canaan  and  admitted  to 
this  bar  in  1808.  He  was  associate  Judge  of  the  County  Court 
from  1829  to  1836,  and  after  that  its  presiding  Judge  for  two  years. 
He  died  in  Canaan  in  1851,  aged  ""j  years.  (See  Sedgwick  s  Ad- 
dress.) 


JUDSON    CAXFiELD 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES  233 

WiLLiA^ki  Porter  Burrali-,  was  a  son  of  the  Hon.  William  M. 
Burrall,  born  in  Canaan  September  18,  1806.  Immediately  after 
his  gTaduation  from  Yale  College  in  1826  he  began  the  study  of 
law  with  his  father,  attended  the  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was 
admitted  to  this  bar  April,  1829.  He  practiced  law  in  his  native 
town  until  October,  1838,  when  he  removed  to  Bridgeport,  Con- 
necticut, and  assumed  the  presidency  of  the  Housatonic  Railroad 
Company,  then  just  organizing,  which  otfice  he  held  till  1853,  when 
he  resigned.  He  was  connected  with  the  New  York,  New  Haven 
(^'  Hartford  Railroad  Company  during  its  construction  and  the 
earlier  years  of  its  operation.  He  was  also  treasurer  and  president 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad.  In  1862  he  was  chosen  vice- 
president  of  the  Hartford  and  New  Haven  Railroad  and  in  1868 
was  made  its  president,  and  upon  consolidation  became  the  vice- 
president  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  Railroad  Com- 
pany, which  office  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death  at  Hartford, 
March  3,  1874. 

Charles  D.  Burriee.  of  Litchfield,  was  born  in  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  in  1854.  He  entered  the  class  of  1878,  Yale,  and 
after  studying  at  the  Columbia  Law  School,  was  admitted  to  the 
Hartford  bar  in  1884.     He  removed  to  Litchfield  in  1891. 

Caevin  BltteER,  born  in  \\  atcrbury  in  1772.  He  began  to  study 
at  Williams  College  but  left  al  the  close  of  the  sophomore  year  and 
began  the  study  of  law  at  Norfolk.  He  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in 
1799,  and  finally  located  at  Plymouth  in  1806,  where  he  died  in 
1845.  Hg  held  many  of  the  town  offices,  was  a  member  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention  in  181 8.  In  1839  he  was  appointed  a 
Judge  of  the  County  Court  for  Litchfield  County. 

Caemnt  R.  Bi'TeEr  was  a  son  of  Calvin  Butler,  Esq.,  and  born 
in  Plymouth  August  6,  1809,  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1843. 
He  died  October  16,  1844. 

Maecoimb  N.  ButeER  was  another  son  of  Calvin  Butler.  Esq., 
and  was  born  in  Plymouth.  June  26,  1826,  and  admitted  to  this  bar 
in  1846.     He  died  in  Plymouth  February  29,  1848. 

S.  jMcLeax  BucKiNGEiA:\r.  born  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  October  3, 
1876.  Graduated  at  Yale  1899  and  at  Harvard  Law  Schooli902. 
Admitted  to  this  Ijar  1903.     Resides  and  practices  at  Watertown. 

CuRTiss  W.  Cahee  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1828. 

DaniEE  W.  Cady,  a  native  of  Petersboro,  New  York,  and  a 
graduate  of  Cornell  in  1878,  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1884.  He 
removed  to  Kansas  and  was  engaged  as  a  law^  instructor  until  his 
death  in  1885. 


234  I.ITCITFIELD  COUNTY  liKNClI   AND  T.AK 

1)a\u)  S.  Cal.ilolx,  born  in  Coventry,  Connecticut,  in  1827, 
g'raduated  at  Yale  College  in  1848.  Studied  law  with  Judge  O.  S. 
Seymour  at  Litchfield  1850-51,  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  Decem- 
ber 18,  1851.  Has  practiced  in  Hartford  County  to  the  present  time 
and  for  many  _\ears  was  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for 
that  county.     He  resides  in  Hartford. 

Gkorck  A\a  CA:\rp  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1882  from  New 
:\]ilford. 

SA:\ruL:[.  G.  Ca.mp  is  a  native  of  North  Canaan.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1902.  Resides  and  practices  in  his  native  village,  and 
is  largely  interested  in  lime  manufacturing. 

Ezra  Caxfikld  was  admitted  to  the  Ijar  in  1802  from  Salisbury. 

Edward  T.  Caxfield  was  born  in  'I'homaston.  graduated  at 
Yale  College  and  Yale  Law  School  in  1903,  and  admitted  to  this 
bar  1903.  Practices  his  profession  at  Hartford,  but  resides  in  his 
native  town,  which  he  represented  in  the  Legislature  in  1907. 

JoiiK  Caxfield  was  born  in  New  Milford  in  1740  and  graduated 
at  Yale  College  in  1762;  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1763  and  settled  in 
Sharon  as  the  first  lawyer  who  established  himself  in  practice  there. 
He  was  ten  times  sent  from  that  town  to  the  General  Court  and  in 
1786  he  was  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  died  the 
same  year.  He  was  State's  Attorney  for  the  county  from  1772  until 
his  death. 

Joseph  CaxfiF.ld,  Jr.,  born  in  \'j(\'/  in  Lyuie.  Connecticut,  and 
removed  with  his  father  when  he  was  }Oung  to  Salisbury.  He 
studied  law  with  Colonel  Strong  and  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1786.  He  located  and  practiced  in 
Salisbur\-  until  his  death  in  1803. 

JuDSON  Caxfikld.  born  in  New  INlilford  January  24,  1759,  and 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1782.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1785  and  located  and  practiced  in  Sharon.  He  held  many  import- 
ant oliicial  positions  and  was  for  many  \ears  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  County  Court.  He  was  one  of  the  i)urchasers  of  the  school  lands 
in  ( )hio  and  the  county  seat  of  Mahoning  County  was  named  after 
him.     lie  died  in  New  York  City  February  5,  1840. 

Hkxrv  J.  Caxfield  was  a  son  of  Judson  Canfield,  born  in 
Sharon,  1789,  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1806  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  bar  in  1810.  In  early  life  he  removed  to  Ohio  to  take 
care  of  his  father's  interests  in  that  State.  Died  November  27,  1856, 
at  Canfield,  <  'hio. 

S.\^tuEL  Caxfield  was  born  in  Milford  and  reiuoved  to  New 
Milford  earl}-  in  its  settlement.     For  many  years  he  was  the  Justice 


GKuKCi-;  c.\'ii,ix. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES  235 

of  the  Peace  and  Town  Clerk.  Upon  the  org-anization  of  the  county 
in  1 75 1  he  was  one  of  the  justices  of  the  quorum  for  the  county, 
and  in  1754  was  appointed  the  agent  of  the  county  for  the  building 
of  the  court  house  at  Litchfield.  He  died  December  14.  1754,  aged 
52.  He  was  the  father  of  Colonel  Sanuiel  Canfield,  whose  picture 
■s  shown  on  page  18.  "  But  few  men  have  a  higher  record  than  he 
at  his  age  in  the  olden  time." 

Albert  AI.  Cai^d,  Ijorn  in  Amenia,  New  York,  in  1845  '^"'^^  ^'^' 
moved  to  Sharon  while  quite  young.  He  was  admitted  to  this  bar 
in  1889.  He  represented  Sharon  in  the  Legislature  in  1866  and 
m  1 89 1.    Is  deceased. 

Ly]\iax  \\\  Casi'  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1849  ^^'^^  resided 
in  Winsted.  He  died  May  9,  1892,  at  the  age  of  64,  and  the 
disposal  of  his  larg'e  estate  can  be  seen  in  the  case  of  Pinney  vs. 
xVewton  et  al.  in  the  Sixty-sixth  Connecticut  Reports. 

Orrix  S.  C.\si;,  born  in  Canton  and  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1849. 
He  practiced  in  Collinsville.  In  the  war  of  the  rebellion  he  was  an 
oJlicer  in  the  Thirty-first  Connecticut  \  ohmteers  and  was  killed 
before  Petersburg,  X'irginia,  August  6,  1864. 

L^KiAii  Cask,  born  in  Canton  in  1828,  studied  law  with  Elisha 
Johnson  and  was  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1851.  He  practiced  in  Pine 
Meadow  and  Plainville,  l)ut  finally  removed  to  Hartford,  where  he 
now  resides. 

Abijaii  Catling,  of  Harwinton.  appears  upon  the  records  of  the 
County  Court  as  a  practitioner  in  1752. 

Gkokgk  Catlix,  was  a  son  of  Putnam  Catlin  and  was  born  in 
Wilkesbarre,  Penn.  He  studied  law  in  the  Law  School  and  was 
admitted  to  the  lUir  in  1817.  After  a  few  years  practice  in  Penn- 
sylvania he  quit  the  profession  and  went  to  painting  Indian  }X)rtraits 
for  which  he  has  gained  a  world  wide  reputation.  C)ur  portrait  of 
Judge  Reeve  is  fnun  Catlin's  painting-. 

George  Smith  Cati.ix,  born  in  Harwinton  August  24th,  1808, 
and  admitted  to  this  bar  in  1828.  He  ])racticed  in  Windham 
County  from  1821;  to  1853.  He  was  a  representative  in  Congress 
in  1843-45. 

PuTxam  Catlix,  was  born  in  Litchfield  April  5,  1764  and  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1786  and  soon  after  removed  to  Pennsylvania 
and  died  at  Great  Rend  in  that  state  in  1842.  He  served  in  the 
revolutionary  war  and  received  a  "Badge  of  Merit."  He  was  the 
father  of  George  Catlin  the  Indian  painter. 


236 


I.ITCIIFIELD  COUNTY  HEXCII  AND  BAR 


Alijati  C  a  T  L  I  N, 
born  in  Harwinton, 
Conn.,  April  i.  1805. 
Graduated  at  Yale  in 
1825  and  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  in  New 
Haven  County  i  n 
1827.  He  practiced  a 
few  }-ears  in  Geor^^ia 
but  returned  in  1837 
to  Harwinton  where 
he  lived  until  h  i  s 
death,  April  14.  1891. 
He  held  various  pub- 
lic oliices,  representa- 
tive to  the  General 
Assembly  ten  times, 
member  of  the  Senate 
in  1844,  Comptroller 
o  f  the  State  1847, 
1848  and  1849,  School 
F  u  n  d  Commissioner 
1852.  Was  Judg'e  of 
the  County  Court  a 
number  of  years.  He 
was  Chairman  of  the 
Bar  Association  for 
many  years  prior  to 
his  death  and  all  his  life  an  active  participant  in  all  reform  matters 
of  good  citizenship.      See  his  obituary  in  60  Conn.  Report. 

JOHX  D.  Champlix,  was  born  in  Stonington.  Conn.  January  29, 
1834,  but  in  early  life  removed  to  Litchfield.  He  was  admitted  to 
this  bar  in  1859.  After  a  very  l)rief  practice  he  engaged  in  news- 
]japer  work,  publishing  the  Litchfield  Sentinel,  but  disposing  of 
that  enterprise  he  removed  to  New  York  City,  and  has  ever  since 
been  engaged  in  literary  work. 

Elmore  S.  ChaFEEE.  was  born  in  Sharon  April  26,  18 10  and  ad- 
mitted to  this  bar  in  1833,  and  died  in  1834. 

Charles  Y.  Cifase.  was  born  in  Sharon  in  1784.  Admitted 
to  this  IJar  in  1808  and  after  a  short  practice  abondoned  his  pro- 
fession for  the  ministry,  and  removed  to  Ohio. 

Tiiu.\L\s  Ciiii'-MAX  removed  fnim  Groton,  Conn,  to  Salisbury 
in  1740  with  five  sons.  He  was  a  practioncr  of  law  and  was  ap- 
pointed a  Judge  of  the  first  County  Court,  but  died  before  its  first 
term.  He'  was  the  grand-father  of  Hon.  Nathaniel  Chipman  of 
Vermont. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTKS  237 

Frederick  Ciiittexdex  was  born  in  Kent,  but  died  in  Litchfield 
August  12,  1869,  aged  65  years,  and  with  one  exception  was  the 
oldest  practicing-  member  of  this  Bar.  He  possessed  good  legal 
attainments,  and  at  one  time  did  a  very  extensive  law  business.  He 
was  of  a  very  impulsive  tempement,  and  sometimes  made  enemies, 
but  he  also  had  warm  friends.  He  was  given  to  acts  of  kindness 
and  generosity.  He  resided  at  Woodville  in  the  town  of  Washing- 
ton and  carried  on  a  large  Iron  Works  making  bar  and  slitted  iron. 

Aarox  Church,  admitted  to  this  Bar  from  Hartland  in  1802. 

Lk.^iax  Church,  born  in  Salisbur_\-,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar 
in  1 816.  He  settled  in  Canaan  where  he  died  in  1849.  He  had 
an  extensive  practice  and  was  State's  Attorney  for  a  number  of 
years.      (See  Boardman  sketches  and  Sedgwick's  Address.) 

Many  years  ago  Truman  Smith  was  called  to  try  a  case  in 
North  Canaan.  The  atl'air  was  one  Vvdiich  called  together  a  good 
many  witnesses  and  others,  and  the  rooms  at  the  hotel  were  all 
taken.  Mr.  Smith,  in  his  absentmindness  had  neglected  to  have 
a  room  assigned  to  him,  and  toward  midnight,  having  spent  the 
evening  in  preparation  for  the  trial  of  the  morrow,  he  made  ap- 
plication to  the  landlord  for  a  room.  The  host  was  quite  taken 
back  to  find  that  more  room  was  wanted,  for  every  bed  was  oc- 
cupied. It  was  finally  decided  that  Mr.  Smith  would  have  to  occupy 
the  same  bed  with  Judge  Leman  Chi;rch.  Judge  Church,  as  will 
be  remembered  l:)y  the  men  of  those  days,  was  of  very  small  stature, 
not  larger  than  the  average  boy  of  fourteen  of  fifteen ;  his  head 
was  round  and  small,  albeit  he  was  a  very  able  jurist.  Accepting 
the  situation.  ]\Ir.  Smith  disrobed  for  sleep,  turned  down  the  bed- 
clothes, and  there  beheld  the  Judge,  up  over  on  the  back  side  of  the 
couch,  like  a  crooked-necked  squash.  "Humph  !"  said  the  senator, 
glancing  around  at  the  host,  who  was  waiting  to  carry  away  the 
tallow-dip  of  those  early  days,  "this  is  the  first  time  I  ever  had  to  go 
to  bed  with  an  interrogation  point!"      (See  Warner's  Address.) 

Sa:muki,  Crii'RCH,  LL.  D.,  born  in  Salisbury  February  4,  1785. 
Graduated  at  Yale  in  1806.  Studied  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1806  and  soon  began  ])ractice  in  his 
native  town.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention 
in  1818,  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  in  1832,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  in  1847.  The  latter  part  of  his  life  he  resided  in 
Litchfield,  where  he  died  in  1854.  (See  Sedgwick's  Address.)  See 
Portrait  on  page  3. 

Gregg  Clark  was  born  in  Iowa  City,  Iowa,  February  5th,  1872. 
Graduated  at  Harvard  1893.  Engaged  as  a  teacher  at  "The  Gun- 
nery" in  Washington,  Conn.,  and  studied  law  with  Hon.  Geo.  A. 
Hickox,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1899.  Removed  to  New 
Jersey. 

Thomas  M.  Clark,  born  in  Winsted.  January  4,  1830.     Never 


238  IjTCHFlliLD  COLXTV  IJHXCII  AND  LAK 

practiced.  Noted  as  being  a  lono-  time  the  spicy  editor  of  the 
\\'insted  Herald,  and  afterwards  a  i)rominent  manufacturer.  He 
died  at  sea  November  13,  1887.  while  returning  from  a  voyage 
taken  for  his  health. 

CtiivSTKr  D.  ClKvelaxd,  born  in  Rarkhamsted,  served  in  the  2nd. 
Conn.  Heavv  Artillerv  in  the  Rebellion,  gaining  the  rank  of  Major. 
Admitted  t<i  this  P>ar  in  1866.  Removed  to  Oshkosh,  Wis.  where 
he  was  County  Judge. 

Frank  E.  Cleveland,  born  in  Salisbury  May  18.  1853.  Gradu- 
ated at  the  University  of  jMichigan  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  at 
Ann  Harbor,  Mich,  in  1873,  and  also  to  this  Bar  the  next  year. 
After  a  short  practice  he  became  totallv  blind.  He  moved  to  Hart- 
ford and  was  the  publisher  of  law  blanks  and  stationery.  He  was 
the  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  for  the  blind.  He 
now,  1907,  resides  in  ^^"ashington.  D.  C.  and  is  en^'aged  in  education 
of  the  blind. 

WiLLiAir  G.  CoE,  born  in  Winchester  September  10,  1829,  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1851,  began  his  practice  at  N^ew  Britain,  Conn., 
but  in  1856  removed  to  Winsted  and  engaged  in  manufacturing.  He 
was  an  active  promoter  of  the  then  Connecticut  Western  Railroad 
Company  and  was  its  secretary.     He  died  in  A\'insted  Alay  31,  1872. 

Ciii'KCiriLL  CoEEix,  born  in  Salisbur\-,  admitted  to  this  Bar. 
Died  in  Chicago  in  1873. 

George  W.  Cole,  born  in  Warren,  Conn.  September  6,  1850. 
Was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1876  and  practiced  about  two  years  in 
I'lxniouth  and  removed  to  Torrington  in  1878.  He  remained  there 
until  1885  when  he  left  the  practice  of  law  and  became  a  professional 
librarian.  He  is  now  eng"aged  in  B)ibli(\gra]')hical  work  in  New  York 
City. 

Richard  Cook,  admitted  in  1835  from  New  Hartford. 

Roger  W.  Cook,  born  February  10,  1797  in  Litchfield.  Admitt- 
ed to  this  Bar  in  1819  from  Litchfield.  Died  at  sea  November  4, 
1823  on  a  voyage  to  the  West  Indies  for  his  health. 

Willl\:m  Cogsavell.  was  a  native  of  Washington  and  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1791.  Was  a  Presidential  elector  in  1824  and  died  in 
1825.  He  took  great  interest  in  military  matters  and  was  Colonel 
in  the  Militia.      (See  Sedgwick's  Address.) 

WiLLL\.\i  Co'iiiKEx.  born  in  Farmington,  Maine,  November  28, 
1819.  Graduated  at  Bowdoin  College  in  1843.  Came  to  Woodbury 
and  studied  law  with  Hon.  Charles  V>.  l^helps,  and  was  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1845.  He  located  and  always  resided  in  Woodbury  hav- 
ing an  extensive  i)ractice  until  his  death  March  nth.  1898.  His 
fame  will  rest  i)rincipally  upon  his  historical  investigations  and 
especially  his  History  of  Ancient  AA'oodbury. 


•'■'aiiiL 


BIOGRAl'lllCAI,   NOTES  239 

Stewart  W.  Cowex,  born  in  ^Nliddlebury,  studied  law  with 
James  Huntington,  of  Woodbury,  admitted  to  the  Car  in  1885.  now 
in  practice  in  Mt.  Vernon,  X.  Y. 

Edward  P.  Coavles.  born  in  Canaan  January  t6.  18 15,  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1849.  Practiced  in  Hudson.  X.  Y.  and  in  Xew  York 
City;  was  appointed  in  1854  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Xew 
York. 

Walter  S.  CowlES,  born  in  Canaan  February  23.  1819,  atlmitted 
to  the  Bar  in  185 1.  Located  and  practiced  in  Bridgeport,  and  re- 
moved to  Xew  York  City,  where  he  died  in  1897. 

Samuel  Cowles,  achnitted  to  the  P)ar  in  1803  from  Xorfulk. 

Edward  H.  Cu-MMixc.  admitted  in  1830. 

Eli  Curtiss,  was  born  in  Xorthbury.  (now  Plymouth)  Febru- 
ary 10,  1748.  Graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1777,  was  active  in  the 
Revolutionar)  War  wliere  he  reached  the  rank  of  Captain.  He  lost 
an  arm  in  the  service  for  which  he  received  a  pension.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  I'ar  in  178 1.  and  practiced  in  Watertown.  but  finally 
removed  to  Ihnstol.  where  he  died  December  13,  182 1,  and  was 
buried  in  I'hmouth  east  ])iu"ying  ground. 

Holbrook  Ctrtiss,  born  in  Xewtown,  Fairfield  County  Jul}-  14, 
1787.  Graduated  at  Yale  College  1807,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1809.  Began  his  practice  in  Litchfield  County  in  181 5  at  Water- 
town.     He  died  Februar_\-  21.  1858.      (See  Sedgwick's  Address.) 

WiLLL\.AL  E.  Clrtiss.  was  a  son  of  Holbrook  Curtiss.  Ijorn  in 
Watertown  September  29,  1823,  graduated  at  Trinity  in  1843, 
studied  law  with  William  Curtiss  Xoyes  in  Xew  York  City  and  was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1841').  He  practiced  in  Xew  York  City  and 
was  a  Jvulge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  that  State  in  1871.  and  its 
presiding  Judge  in  1876.     He  died  in  Watertown  July  6,  1880. 

Medad  Ci'RTiss,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1797  from  Xorfolk. 

George  ^'.  Citler.  born  in  Watertown  April  6.  1797.  Gradu- 
ated at  Yale  in  1816,  admitted  to  this  P»ar  in  1820  from  Watertown. 
He  practicetl  at  \\'atertown  till  about  1828,  when  he  removed  to 
Illinois,  where  he  was  land  agent,  lawyer,  merchant  and  farmer  at 
Commerce,  the  place  where  the  Mormons  located  in  1838  and 
changed  the  name  to  Xauvoo.     He  died  there  September  3.  1834. 

Spencer  Davtox.  born  in  Winchester  in  1820,  and  admitted  to 
the  Bar  in  1846.     Resides  in  I'hili])])!.  W.  \'a. 

Gilbert  Deax.  l>orn  in  Dutchess  County.  X.  Y.  in  1819.  Gradu- 
ated at  Yale  College  in  1841.  Admitted  to  the  liar  in  1842.  Died 
in  Poughkeepsie.  X.  ^'.  in  1870. 

•  Lee  p.  Deax.  born  in  Canaan  October  18.  1838.  Admitted  tc 
the  Bar  in  18O4.  In  i88f)  he  ren.ioved  to  Bridgeport,  where  he  now 
resides  engaged  in  other  pursuits. 


240  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BLNCH  AXD  BAR 

EuGEXE  C.  Dempsey,  born  in  Barkhamsted  January  7.  1864,  ad- 
mitted to  the  Bar  in  1886.  Located  in  Danbiiry,  where  he  now 
resides. 

jERE:\nAir  \\\  DexTER,  a  native  of  SaHsbury,  served  in  the  war 
of  the  rebehicni  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1866.  Located  and 
resides  at  W'averly,  N.  Y. 

WiLLiA.^r  E.  DiCKixsox,  was  born  in  New  York  City  Alay  30, 
1824,  but  came  to  Litchfield  when  a  chikl.  He  was  admitted  to  this 
Bar  in  1846.  Located  and  practiced  at  Stonington,  Conn.,  until 
1850,  when  he  removed  to  the  Lake  Superior  regions  and  was  en- 
gaged in  important  mining  operations.  Subsequently  he  went  to 
Cuba  in  the  same  business  and  while  there  had  charge  of  building 
the  Daiquria  Pier  for  loading  ore,  the  same  pier  used  by  the  United 
States  to  unload  troops  during  the  Spanish-American  War.  He 
then  removed  to  Wisconsin  where  he  was  District  Attorney  of 
Florence  County  for  a  number  of  years.  He  died  at  Florence,  Wis., 
June  15,  1899. 

WiiEATox  F.  DowD,  born  in  Xew  Hartford,  i\ugust  21,  1867. 
Graduated  at  Yale  Law  School  in  1894  and  was  admitted  to  this 
Bar  the  same  }'ear,  and  was  appointed  Assistant  Clerk  of  the 
Superior  Court.  In  1901,  after  the  decease  of  William  F.  Hurlburt, 
he  was  appointed  Clerk  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  Litch- 
field County  which  office  he  has  since  held.     He  resides  in  Winsted. 

Theodore  W.  Dowxs  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1870  from 
Bridgeport.  The  following  is  taken  from  a  Ih-idgeport  paper  of 
September  24th,  1907,  "Former  Consul  dead.  Theodore  Waldren 
Downs  former  United  States  Consul  to  Quebec  and  prominent  in 
national  Democratic  politics,  died  at  his  home  in  this  city  yesterday 
after  a  sickness  of  about  seven  weeks  following  a  shock." 

WiLLi.\:\r  DkiNKWATEK,  came  to  New  Milford  about  1730  from 
Ridgefield  and  for  nearly  thirty  years  was  a  prominent  man  there 
and  was  in  the  practice  of  law  in  1753.     He  died  in  1758. 

DaxiEl  DrxiiAR,  was  a  native  of  Plymouth,  admitted  to  this 
bar  in  1798.     Located  and  practiced  in  Berlin.  Conn..  1803  to  1841. 

Miles  Dfxn.vu,  was  a  native  of  l'l_\mouth  hut  was  admitted  to 
this  bar  in  1810  as  from  Sharon.  The  history  of  Ellsworth  a  part 
of  the  town  of  Sharon  gives  this  notice  of  him.  "Our  first  Dunbar 
was  hardly  representative  of  the  household,  for  he  came  and  w^ent 
more  like  a  comet  than  the  staid  and  planetary  bodies  since  represen- 
tative. That  was  Miles  Dunbar  of  Plymouth,  Conn.,  lawyer,  music 
teacher  and  jack-at-all-trades.  About  1812  he  departed  from 
Sharon." 


\\lli;\TC)X      F.     1K)\^■D. 


BIOGRAPiriCAL  NOTES  24I 

Henry  A1.  Button,  was  a  son  of  Ex-Governor  and  Judge  Button 
(who  was  born  in  Litchfield),  and  practiced  law  in  Litchfield  in  i86i 
with  his  uncle  Henry  B.  Graves,  Esq.  L'pon  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war  he  entered  the  service  of  his  country  and  received  a  commission 
as  Lieutenant  in  the  5th  Connecticut  Infantry,  and  was  killed  in 
the  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain,  \'a.,  August  9th,  1862. 

RuFus  EAST:\rAN,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1796  from  Washington. 

BxWiD  Edmunds,  admitted  to  the  l^>ar  in  1806  from  Newtown. 

Ogden  Edwards,  born  in  1781,  a  student  of  the  Law  School  in 
1 80 1,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1802  as  from  New  Haven.  He  re- 
moved to  New  York  where  he  was  a  prominent  man  and  a  lead- 
ing attorney  for  many  years  :  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  Sur- 
rogate, etc. 

Frederick  EgglESTon.  admitted  in  1834  from  Cromwall. 

Nathaniel  B.  Ei.drkdge,  admitted  in  181 1  from  Salisbury. 

John  Elmore,  was  a  son  of  Col.  Sanuiel  Elmer  of  Revolution- 
ar}-  war  fame,  and  born  in  Sharon.  Settled  in  Canaan  in  1793  and 
died  in  that  town  Becember  loth,  1849,  aged  84  years. 

John  Elmore,  Jr.,  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1819  from  Canaan. 
He  "died  at  East  Canaan,  June  12th,  1857.  in  his  65th  year.  See 
Warner's  Reminisences. 

Henry  Loomis  Ellsworth  was  a  son  of  Chief  Justice  Oliver 
Ellsworth,  and  after  studying  with  Judge  Reeve  in  the  Law  School, 
he  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  18 12  from  Windsor.  After  a  prac- 
tice in  Hartford  he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of  Indian  afitairs 
under  President  Jackson.  He  was  also  Commissioner  of  Patents 
for  ten  years.     He  died  in   1858. 

Willi a:^i  H.  Ely,  admitted  to  the  Hartford  Bar  in  1879,  but 
located  at  ^^'insted  and  then  removed  to  New  Haven,  where  he  now 
resides  and  has  a  large  practice. 

Ja.aies  Ensign,  born  in  Canaan  February  2,  1819,  graduated  at 
Yale  1842,  and  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1848,  from  Canaan.  He 
practiced  law  but  a  short  time  when  he  engaged  in  farming.  He 
died  in  Salisbury,  February  3.  1883. 

Frank  W.  Etheridge,  of  Thomaston,  was  born  in  Montville  in 
1858.  He  was  educated  at  the  Hartford  High  School  and  pursucfl 
his  law  stutlies  with  the  late  firm  of  Johnson  cS:  Prentice,  of  Hartford, 
being  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1880.  He  settled  in  Thomaston  and 
has  held  a  number  of  town  offices.  He  has  been  Judsfe  of  Probate 
since  1890.  In  1896  he  was  appointed  Health  Officer  for  the 
Countv  which  office  he  has  since  held.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
last  Constitutional  Convention.  He  is  also  the  publisher  and  editor 
of  the  Thomaston  Express,  a  weekly  newspaper. 


242 


I.rrCllFllCLD  COUXTV  JiKXClI  AND  BAR 


William  W.  EIvLSwortii 
was  born  in  Windsor  in  1781, 
the  third  son  of  Oliver  Ells- 
worth, the  second  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  United  States^ 
graduated  at  Yale  in  181  o, 
studied  1  a  \v  \v  i  t  h  Judge 
Reeve  and  was  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1813,  and  began 
h  i  s  practice  in  Hartford, 
where  he  died  January  15th. 
1868.  He  was  a  member  of 
Congress  five  years ;  Gover- 
nor of  the  State  four  years ; 
a  judge  of  the  Superior  Court 
and  the  Supreme  Court  four- 
teen years.  Rufus  Choate 
said  of  him  "If  the  land  of 
tlie  Shermans  and  Griswolds, 
and  Daggetts  and  Williamses 
— rich  as  she  is  in  learning' 
and  virtue — has  a  soimder 
la\\\er,  a  more  upright  mag- 
istrate, or  an  honester  man 
in  lier  ])uhlic  service,  I  know 
not  his  name."  ( See  obitu- 
•  ary  in  34th,  Conn.) 

Daxikl  Everett,  born  in  liethlem  in  1748,  and  began  ])ractice 
of  law  in  New  Milford  in  1772,  where  he  resided  until  his  death  in 
1805.      {  See  Roardman's   Sketches. ) 

vSiii'.K.MAX  hAKuiiT'i'.  was  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1801  as  from 
Cornwall.  He  seems  however,  to  belong  to  Sharon,  where  he  was 
born  Ai)ril  20,  1781,  lived  there  and  died  October  5,  1870.  The 
Ellsworth  History  says,  "The  major  became  captain  of  militia  was 
early  sent  to  the  legislature,  surveyed  almost  every  bit  of  this  town, 
and  much  of  other  towns,  was  a  justice  of  no  mean  record,  rose  to 
the  rank  of  major  in  the  war  of  1812,  was  treasurer  of  this  (Ells- 
worth) societ^■,  commissioner  of  the  common  land  and  founder  of 
the  library  which  now  bears  his  name. 

John  R.  Farx.\.m,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1871,  practiced 
a  short  time  at  Litchfield  and  also  published  the  Litchfield  Sentinel. 
In  1877  he  located  in  Daubur}  ,  Conn.,  from  whence  he  removed  in 
1884  to  Washington,  D.  C. 


Amos  H.  F.\rxsw()rtii.  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1849. 


BIOGRAPIIICAI,  NOTES  245 

Augustus  H.  Fexx,  born  in  Plymouth  January  18,  1844.  In 
tlie  Civil  War  he  gained  the  rank  of  Major  of  the  2nd  Conn.  Heavy 
Artillery.  At  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek  he  was  wounded  and  suf- 
fered the  amputation  of  his  right  arm  at  the  shoulder.  He  was 
a  graduate  of  Harvard  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1867  and  began  his  practice  at  Plymouth  removing  to  Waterbury 
and  thence  to  W'insted  at  which  place  he  resided  at  his  death.  Sep- 
tember 12.  1897.  In  1887  he  was  elected  Judg'e  of  the  Superior 
Court,  and  in  1893  he  was  promoted  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Errors.      (See  his  obituary  in  \'ol.  67,  Conn.) 

The  following  tribute  to  Judge  Fenn  was  given  by  his  associate 
ludge  David  Torrance  at  the  Annual  i\Ieeting  of  the  Armv  and  Xavv 
Club  in  1898: 

"I  trust,  that  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  say  a  few  words  about  him 
who  was  my  friend  and  C(>m])anion  for  some  years  in  the  highest 
court  of  this  state.  wIkmu  all  of  you  know  and  loved,  and  who.  when 
he  died  was  the  honored  president  of  this  club. 

The  best  legacy  that  a  man  can  leave  to  his  children  and  to  his 
fellow  men.  is  the  inspiring  exam])le  of  a  well  spent  life  ;  a  clean  life, 
nobly  lived  for  noble  ends.  Hai)py  the  man  who  dying"  leaves  be- 
hind him  the  record  of  such  a  life;  and  to  the  full  measure  of  such 
felicity,  as  far  as  human  facility  will  i)ermit.  m\  friend  and  yours 
attained. 

His  war  record.  \(iung  as  he  was,  is  as  brilliant  as  it  is  inspiring. 
Entering  the  army  in  July,  1862,  when  he  was  eighteen  years  old, 
as  a  member  of  the  gallant  Second  Connecticut  Heavy  Artillery,  he 
served  with  distinction  as  lieutenant,  as  caDtain,  as  brevet  major 
and  l)revet  lieutenant-colonel,  till  the  close  of  the  war  and  after. 

When  wounded  and  disabled  1)\'  the  loss  of  his  arm  at  Cedar 
Creek  in  1864  he  refused  to  be  discharged  and  reported  for  duty 
within  seven  weeks  after  he  was  wounded.  Most  men  would  have 
regarded  the  loss  of  a  good  right  arm  as  sacrifice  enough  for  one's 
country,  but  our  comrade,  in  this  respect,  as  in  some  others,  was  not 
like  most  men.  Since  the  war  what  a  busy  useful  life  he  led,  as 
student,  as  lawyer,  as  the  trusted  judge  of  probate  for  vears  in  Ply- 
mouth and  Winchester,  as  member  of  the  Legislature,  as  member 
of  imoortant  committees  for  the  revision  of  our  laws,  as  an  active 
participant  in  ]:)olitical  contests, 'as  lecturer  in  the  Yale  Law  School, 
as  the  eloquent  orator  on  ^femorial  Da\s,  and  at  Grand  Army  meet- 
ings innumerable,  as  the  trusted  friend,  the  wise  counsellor,  and 
burden  bearer,  in  local  matters  and  affairs,  and  finally  as  judg'e  of 
the  superior  court  and  of  the  supreme  court  of  errors  of  this  state. 
What  a  deal  of  work  he  crowded  into  his  fiftv-four  years  of  life. 
What  a  useful  life  it  was  to  his  country  and  to  his  fellow  men  !  How 
unselfishly  and  unstintedly  he  gave  himself  to  all  things  that  tended 
to  help  men  and  make  them  better  citizens,  and  in  the  midst  of  all 
its  stir  and  activit\'  and  storm  and  stress,  what  a  clean  and  noble  life 


244  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BLXCH  AND  BAR 

it  was !  He  was  the  architect  of  his  own  fortunes.  About  all  he 
inherited  from  the  past  was  the  blood  of  a  vigorous  ancestry,  but 
blood  will  tell,  and  in  him  it  made  the  desert  of  adverse  circum- 
stances the  very  vantage  ground  of  succeess,  and  caused  its  barren 
wastes  to  blossom  as  the  rose. 

He  was  successful  because  he  merited  success.  He  won  his 
promotions  in  the  army,  without  the  aid  of  influential  friends,  by 
sheer  force  of  character,  by  his  bravery,  and  his  proved  fitness  to 
fill  every  position  to  which  he  was  assigned. 

In  civil  life  he  attained  position  and  influence  by  his  sterling 
integrity  and  his  own  unaided  ability.  He  worthily  filled  every  of- 
fice he  ever  held,  and  worthily  fulfilled  every  one  of  the  many  trusts 
that  were  reposed  in  him.  His  was  on  the  whole  a  successful  life, 
in  a  high  sense  a  joyous  victorious  life,  and  now  that  death  has  put 
a  period  to  it,  while  yet  the  infirmities  of  old  age  were  afar  ofi^, 
he  may,  with  the  wise  old  Greek,  call  it  a  happy  life,  worthily  ended." 

Elliott  J.  Fexx,  was  born  in  Plymouth  September  i,  1855,  ^^^^^ 
studied  law  with  Augustus  H.  Fenn  in  Plymouth,  and  was  admitted 
to  this  P)ar  in  1874.  He  began  practice  in  Waterbury  in  1875,  and 
died  there  in  1888. 

Fredkrick  J.  Fenn,  was  a  native  of  Washington.  Conn.,  but  was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1821  as  from  Canaan.  He  removed  to 
Harrisburg,  Penn. 

LiNi'S  Fexn,  was  a  native  of  Plymouth  and  studied  with  Judge 
Reeve  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1794  and  persued  his  pro- 
fession in  his  native  town.     He  died  in  1852. 

Geokoe  L.  Field,  was  born  in  Watertown  Deccml^er  4.  1828. 
He  studied  law  with  John  \\\  \\'ebster  in  Waterbury,  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1856,  and  after  a  brief  practice  in  Watertown 
he  opened  his  office  in  Waterbury.  He  was  one  of  the  earlier 
Judges  of  the  city  court,  and  also  the  ^layor  of  the  city.  During 
the  last  few  \ears  of  his  life  he  was  totally  blind.  He  died  in 
Watertown,  October  22,  1879. 

John  A.  Foote,  was  admitted  to  this  B)ar  in  1825,  having  at- 
tended the  Law  School.  The  following  taken  from  Howe's  His- 
torical   Collections   of   Ohio,    is   of   i'nterest    regarding   Mr.    Foote: 

"Aluch  gratification  was  derived  at  this  time  in  Cleveland  by 
a  call  ui)on  Mr.  John  A.  Foote,  an  old  lawyer  an  octogenariaiL  of 
whom  1  had  all  iii\-  life  heard  but  never  met  until  now.  He  was 
a  broilicr  of  Admiral  Foote  and  a  son  of  that  Governor  Foote  of 
Connecticut  who  introduced  a  resolution,  historically  known  as 
'Foote's  Resolution'  which  led  to  the  debate  between  Daniel  Web- 
ster and  Mr.  Havne,  of  South  Carolina. 

"Mr.  Foote  first  came  here  from  Cheshire.  Connecticut,  in  the 
suninuT  of  1833,  and  was  for  \cars  a  member  of  the  eminent  law  firm 


EIOGRAPHICAI,  NOTe;S  245 

of  Andrews,  Foote  &  Hoyt.  He  was  born  in  1803  on  the  site  of 
the  Tontine  Hotel  in  New  Haven,  but  his  home  at  the  time  of  leav- 
ing was  in  Cheshire.  That  town  was  overwhelmingly  Democratic, 
and  he  was  a  Whig,  but  as  the  State  Legislature  was  in  session 
but  for  a  few  weeks  his  townsmen  irrespective  of  politics  gave  him 
and  a  Mr.  Edward  A.  Cornwall,  prior  to  their  departure  for  the 
distant  wilds  of  C)hio,  as  a  parting  compliment  the  privilege  of 
representing  them  in  that  body.  So  they  went  down  to  Hartford 
and  passed  a  few  weeks  pleasantly  among  the  'Shad  Eaters'  as  in 
the  humorous  parlace  of  the  time  the  members  were  called,  from 
the  fact  that  they  met  in  May,  the  season  of  shad-catching  in  the 
Connecticut. 

"The  year  1883  came  around  when  Foote  and  Cornwall,  after  a 
lapse  of  fifty  }cars,  in  company  visited  the  Legislature  of  Connecti- 
cut at  Hartford  and  were  received  with  great  eclat. 

"The  House  passed  some  complimentary  resolutions,  signed  by 
the  speaker  (Charles  H.  Pine)  and  by  the  clerk  (Donald  H.  Per- 
kins) expressive  of  their  high  gratification.  'Passed  February  22, 
1883.  Washington's  birthday.'  These  ]\Ir.  Foote  with  commend- 
able pride  pointed  out  to  me  framed  on  his  parlor  wall." 

EhExEzer  FootK,  was  born  in  Watertuwn  (then  \W"stbury) 
July  6.  1773.  Studied  law  at  Judge  Reeve's  school  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Bar  in  1796.  He  located  at  Lansingburgh,  X.  Y.,  and 
with  the  increase  of  his  business  moved  to  Troy  and  later  to  Albany. 
He  was  one  of  the  leading  attorneys  of  the  state,  an  active  and  in- 
fluential politician.  He  was  the  founder  and  promoter  of  the  cele- 
brated Albany  Female  Academv.  He  died  Julv  21,  1814,  at  Trov, 
New  York. 

Jarko  P>.  Foster,  born  in  Albany,  X.  Y.,  1820,  was  admitted  to 
this  Par  in  1848  and  located  and  practiced  in  X^ew  Hartford  until 
his  death  in  ]\ larch  3,  1895.  He  held  many  town  offices  and  was 
judge  of  the  District  Court  for  Litchfield  County  for  the  term  of 
three  years.  He  was  a  very  bright  man  and  a  witty  lawyer  and 
a  great  many  pleasant  stories  and  recollections  are  told  of  his  ]M-ac- 
tice.      (See  picture,  page  107.) 

Walter  S.  Fraxklix,  born  in  Lancaster,  Penn.  in  1799.  Stud- 
ied at  the  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1820  and  jiracticed  law  in  York.  Penn.  He  was  Clerk  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  in  Washington,  D.  C.  from  December  2,  1833  to 
his  death  September  20,  1838.  ^Major  General  Wm.  B.  Franklin 
was  one  of  his  sons. 

George  A.  Free:max'  was  born  in  Boscowen,  X.  H.  in  1876,  fit- 
ted for  College  at  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  graduated  at  Yale 
Scientific  School  in  1897.  studied  law  with  Huntington  &  Warner, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1901.  ^Ir.  Freeman  resides  and 
practices  in  \\'aterbury. 


246  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  UENCH  AND  BAR 

Sa.mlkl  FkisiuK,  admitted  to  the  liar  in  1811  from  \Vaterl)ury, 
where  he  practiced  a  few  years  and  then  removed  to  IncUana. 

HivXKV  1.  FrijJCK.  a(hnitted  in  iH^i)  from  Kent  and  removed  to 
the  State  of  New  York. 

Jkko.mk  FllljCk.  admitted  in   1832  from  Kent. 

RrFi'S  Fi'LLKR.  born  in  Plymonth  in  1810,  g-raduated  at  Union 
College  in  1835,  was  admitted  to  this  PJar  in  1836,  located  in  Kent, 
where  he  practiced  his  profession  for  a  qnarter  of  a  century,  and 
retired  therefrom  in  consecpience  of  ill  health. 

Florimoxd  D.  FnlKk.  born  in  Torrington  in  1834,  g'raduated 
at  Yale  Law  School  in  i860,  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1864,  located 
at  Winsted,  was  a  Judge  of  the  District  Court  for  Litchfield  County, 
1878-1882.  Returned  to  Torrington.  and  from  ill  health  cjuit  his 
practice  and  became  extensively  engaged  in  the  poultry  business  on 
nis  ancestral  home,  where  he  died  after  a  ])rotracted  illness,  August 
22,  1905. 

FrEdkrick  Gaylord,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1853  from  Goshen. 

A:\iMi  Giddings,  born  at  Sherman,  Conn.,  in  1822  and  graduated 
at  Yale  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1849.  ^^ 
practiced  at  Plymouth  until  1866,  when  he  removed  to  Kalamazoo, 
Mich.,  returning  to  Connecticut  in  1872.  He  died  at  his  birth-place, 
February   13,   1882. 

\'ax'  Rexssai.akr  C.  Giddixc.s,  born  in  Xew  Milford  in  1833  and 
after  attending  Yale  Law  School  Avas  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1861. 
After  practicing  in  this  Countv  a  while  he  removed  to  Bridgeport 
in  1869  and  was  the  City  Attorney  for  Bridgeport. 

Jamks  p.  Gia'Xx,  a  native  of  Winsted  was  admitted  to  this  Bar 
in  1895.  Practices  in  Winsted  and  Avas  for  some  years  the  Town 
(.Merk  of  Winchester,  and  also  Prosecuting-  Attorney  of  the  Town 
Court.  In  1901  was  appointed  by  President  Roosevelt.  Postmaster 
of  \\'insted,  which  office  he  now  holds. 

Gi':()RC,E  R.  Gold,  admitted  to  the  l^)ar  in  1856  from  Cornwall 
and  removed  to  Michigan. 

Thomas  R.  Gold,  born  in  Cornwall  in  1764.  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1786.  admitted  to  tiiis  P)ar  in  1788  and  removed  to  Cen- 
tral New  York,  where  he  held  a  leading  position  as  a  lawyer.  Was 
a  mcm])er  of  Congress  for  twenty  years.     He  died  in  1827. 

Jajmes  Gotli),  born  in  Pranford,  Conn.  December  5,  1770,  grad- 
uated at  Yale  College  in  1795,  attended  the  T^itchfield  Law  School 
and  was  admitted  to  this  Par  in  1798.  He  assisted  Judge  Reeve 
in  the  Law  School  and  after  the  retirement  of  Judge  Reeve  con- 
chicted  it  himself  until  its  close  in  1833.     He  died  in  Litchfield  May 


ISlOGKAl'lllCAL  NOTES  24./ 

II,  1838.  He  was  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors,  and 
.author'  of  Gould's  Pleadings,  published  in  1832.  (  See  Boardinan 
and  Sedgwick  Sketches.) 

Iamks  Rekve  Gould,  a  son  of  James  born  in  Litchfield  Novem- 
ber"2,  1803.  Graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1824,  was  adiuitted  to 
this  ])ar  in  1826,  and  removed  to  Augusta.  Georgia,  where  he  died 
October  11,  1830. 

Ge<m<(;e  GorEi).  a  son  of  James  born  in  Litchfield  September  2, 
1807,  admitted  to  this  15ar  in  1829.  Removed  to  Troy,  X.  Y.,  where 
he  died  February  11,  1868.  He  had  been  Mayor  of  Troy  and  a 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  C<nu-t  of  New  York  from  1855  to  1863. 

Wii.EiAM  Tkacy  Gol'IJ),  another  son  of  James  and  l)orn  October 
25,  1799,  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1816.  and  admitted  to  this 
\\a.x-  in  1820.  He  removed  to  Augusta,  Georgia,  where  he  became  a 
distinguished  Judge  and  prominent  citizen.     Died  July,  1882. 

Hiram  Goodwin,  born  in  New  Hartford  Alay  5,  1808.  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1830.  Located  at  Riverton  in  the  town  of  Barkham- 
sted.  Was  a  Judge  of  the  Litchfield  County  Court  1851  to  1855. 
Died  February  5,  1885.     His  obituary  is  in  52d  Conn.   Reports. 

L^M.\^■  Gk.wc.ER.  admitted  to  the  liar  in  1821.  He  was  a  native 
of  Salisbury  or  Canaan,  and  graduated  at  Union  College  in  1820. 
After  a  short  practice  in  Salisbury  he  removed  to  Rutland,  Ver- 
mont and  associated  wdth  Moses  Strong,  having  a  large  law  practice. 
He  died  in  1839. 

Elijah  Pheh^s  Grant,  born  in  Xorfolk,  1808.  Practiced  in 
Winsted  in  1835  and  1836,  when  he  removed  to  Canton.  (  )hi().  where 
h.e  died  December  21,  1874. 

Friend  Grant,  born  in  Litchfield  September  14,  1740.  Gradu- 
ated at  Yale  1761.  and  ]iracticed  in  Litchfield  a  year  or  two,  and 
died  in  1764. 

Miles  Tobey  Grancer,  was  born  August  12,  1817  in  New 
Marlboro,  Mass.  By  his  own  exertions  as  a  farmer  bo}-  and  at 
country  school  teaching  he  graduated  at  Wesleyan  College  at 
Middletown  in  1842.  The  next  year  he  went  to  Louisana  as  a  fam- 
ilv  teacher  and  began  studving  law  and  was  admitted  in  that  State 
in  1845.  Returning  to  the  North  he  was  admitted  the  same  year 
to  this  Bar.  and  soon  located  in  North  Canaan,  making  that  his 
residence,  until  his  decease  October  21,  189.S. 

Judge  Granger  was  a  Democrat  in  his  political  views,  and  in  1857 
represented  his  town  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  in  1867  and 
1868  he  was  State  Senator  from  his  district  and  cliairman  of  the 
Judiciary  Committee,  and  was  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  Sui>erior 
Court.     Li  1876  he  was  advanced  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors 


248  LITCHFIELD  COUXTV  BENCH  AND  BAR 

which  office  he  held  until  1887,  when  he  resigned  to  accept  an 
election  to  Congress.  In  1893  he  was  appointed  a  State  Referee, 
which  position  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

Bro.  Hickox  in  his  obituary  of  Judge  Granger  published  in  the 
66tli  Conn.  Reports,  ends  with  a  sentence  with  which  every  mem- 
ber of  the  Bar  fully  concurred.  "A  grave,  honest,  shrewd  man,  he 
inspired  confidence  and  respect,  while  his  sense,  wit  and  kindly 
nature  won  him  general  esteem,  and  his  loxalty,  many  lasting 
friends."     (Picture  on  page  156.) 

Henry  B.  Graves^  born  in  Sherman,  Conn,  in  1822  and  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1845.  He  began  his  practice  in  Plymouth,  but  after 
a  couple  of  years  removed  to  Litchfield  where  he  had  for  more  than 
forty  years  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  frequently  representing 
the  town  in  the  General  Assembly.  The  Judicial  History  says  of 
him,  "He  was  a  typical  lawyer  of  the  old  school.  In  figure  he  was 
tall,  handsome  and  striking.  He  had  great  keenness  of  preception, 
splendid  capacities  for  analyis  and  was  a  compact  and  logical 
thinker.  He  was  a  man  of  most  kindly  feelings  warm  and  ardent 
in  his  friendships,  generous  and  helpful  to  all  and  never  vindictive 
even  to  his  opponents."  He  died  in  Litchfield  August  10,  1891. 
Obituary  in  60  Conn.  Reports.     Picture,  page  152. 

G.  W.  GriSwold,  was  in  practice  in  \\'inchester  in  1831,  but 
w'as  not  admitted  at  this  Bar. 

Frederick  Gunn,  admitted  in  1813  from  Xew  ]\Iilford.  Died 
in  New  Milford  November  23,  1852,  aged  65. 

Warren  W.  Guthrie,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1855,  began  prac- 
tice in  Seymour,  Conn.,  but  in  1856  removed  to  Atkinson.  Kan., 
and  was  Attorney  General  of  Kansas  for  a  number  of  years. 

Nathan  Hale,  was  an  Attorney  at  Sharon  in  1777  and  an  as- 
sistant Judge  of  the  County  Court  for  eighteen  years. 

Benjamin  Hall,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1797. 

ElanaThan  S.  Hall,  admitted  in  1846  from  Fairfield  County. 

Gideon  Hall,  born  in  Winchester  May  i,  1808,  graduated  at 
Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1832.  He 
always  resided  in  Winsted  and  had  a  large  practice  until  1866.  when 
he  was  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  which  office  he 
held  at  the  time  of  his  death  December  8,  1867.  (See  Warner's 
Reminiscences.)      Picture,  page  113. 

Robert  E.  Hall  was  born  in  Morris.  Conn,  in  1858.  graduated 
at  Yale  Law  School  in  1882  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  New 
Haven  County,  has  practiced  principally  in  Watcrbury.  Ts  not  now 
in  practice. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES  249 

Jacob  B.  Hardexburgii,  born  in  Xew  York  State  in  1833,  was 
admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1854  and  practiced  at  Kingston.  In  tlie  war 
of  the  rebelHon  he  served  nearly  five  years  and  was  Colonel  of  the 
80th  N.  Y.  A'olo.  In  1867  he  located  at  North  Canaan  taking  Judge 
Granger's  practice.  In  1883  he  was  appointed  County  Coroner 
which  office  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death,  April  4,  1892. 

JoHx  Harper,  admitted  to  this  Bar  from  Winsted  in  1850.  He 
removed  South  and  located  at  Alpalechicola,  Fla.  about  185 1.  He 
was  an  officer  in  the  Confederate  service  during  the  rebellion. 

Jui.ius  B.  Harrisox.  was  born  in  Cornwall  in  1819,  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1843  aud  located  at  Xew  Milford.  Was  State 
Attorney  in  1852  and  died  in  Xew  Milford  October  10,  1854,  aged 
35  years. 

Moses  Hatch  was  born  in  Kent  in  1780.  graduated  at  Yale  in 
1800.  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1802,  settled  in  Danbury  where  he 
died  in  1820. 

Charles  R.  Hathaway,  a  native  of  Winchester.  Admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1880.  now  in  jiractice  in  Manche-^ter.  Conn.  Is  now  the 
Record  Commissioner  of  Connecticut. 

William  HawlEv,  born  in  Redding.  Conn  ,  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1780,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1791  ;  he  removed  from 
Fairfield  County  in  1798  to  Woodbury,  and  soon  thereafter  aban- 
doned his  legal  practice  for  mercantile  pursuits. 

Charles  Gordox  Hayes,  eldest  son  of  the  Rev.  Gordon  Hayes, 
born  in  W'ashington,  Conn.  January  20.  1830.  Graduated  at  Yale 
in  1851.  Admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1855.  Removed  to  Rock  Island. 
111.,  and  to  ^Muscatine,  Iowa.  Died  at  DesMoines,  Iowa,  April 
8,  1878. 

Louis  M.  Hemixway  was  born  in  \\'atertown  in  1875.  Was 
fitted  for  College  at  the  Cheltingham  Military  Academy,  graduated 
at  Lafayette  College  in  1896  and  at  the  Law  School  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Mrginia  in  1899  and  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  the  following 
}-ear.     He  is  largely  engaged  in  the  hotel  business. 

Joshua  Hexshaav,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1797,  from  New- 
Hartford. 

Philo  AI.  Heacocks,  born  February  8,  1784,  admitted  to  the  Bar 
in  1810.  and  practiced  in  X'ew  Milford  until  his  death  April  20,  1825. 

Samuel  A.  Her^iax.  born  in  Canaan  1855.  and  was  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1878.  He  located  at  Winsted  in  company  with  the 
late  Judge  Fenn.  and  they  had  a  large  and  lucrative  practice.  He 
has  attended  strictly  to  his  profession,   doing  very  little  non-pro- 


250 


I.lTCTTFIia.D  COUXTV  T'-KXCTE  AXD  liA.; 


fessional  work.  He  was  State  Senator  in  1897.  He  was  an  active 
promoter  of  the  Torrington  c\:  Winchester  Electric  Road,  and  its 
Secretary.  He  resides  at  his  farm  residence  in  the  town  of  Tor- 
rington, hut  continues  his  practice  at  W'insted. 

George  A.  Hickox 
was  born  in  Washing- 
ton in  1830,  graduated 
at  Trinity  College  in 
1 85 1,  was  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1853  and 
located  at  Litchfield. 
In  1866  he  purchased 
the  Litchfield  Enquir- 
er, which  he  publish- 
ed for  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  editing  i  t 
with  marked  ability 
and  profound  scholar- 
ship. 

In  1895  he  remov- 
e  d  to  his  ancestral 
home  at  W^ashington, 
where  he  died,  June 
6,  1903. 

Richard  T.  Hig- 
Gixs  was  born  in 
Washington  in  1865, 
was  educated  at  St. 
Francis  College, 
Brooklyn,  Xew  York. 
Studied  law  with 
Hon.  James  Hunting- 
ton of  Woodbury  and 
admitted  to  this  I5ar  in  1890.  Resides  in  Winsted  and  has  for 
several  years  been  the  County  Coroner.      (See  Coroner  page  165.) 

Berxard  E.  Higgixs,  born  in  Woodbury  January  31,  1872,  ad- 
mitted to  the  I'ar  June,  1897.  Resides  and  practices  in  Torrington. 
Conn.  Was  Borough  Clerk  for  three  years.  Is  now  (1907)  Prose- 
cuting Attorney  for  the  town. 

Homer  Hixe  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1800  from  Xew  Alilford. 

Cjiarles  W.  Hixmax,  born  in  Southbury  in  1829.  admitted  in 
1853.  Before  he  had  begun  to  practice  he  received  an  appointment 
as  one  of  the  librarians  of  Congress  and  removed  to  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Edward  Hixmax'^  was  born  in  Southbury,  then  a  part  of  Wood- 


GEORGE   a.    hickox. 


SAMUEL  A.  iier:max. 


BIOGRAI'JIICAI,  NOTES  25 1 

bury  in  1740  and  practiced  in  Southbiiry.  He  was  familiarly 
known  as  Lawyer  Xed.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  very  able  lawyer. 
He  was  very  corpilent  man,  weighing  something  over  four  hundred 
pounds. 

RoBiNSOx  S.  HiXMAX  was  born  in  South  Britain  in  1801.  Was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1825.  In  1827  he  removed  to  Utica.  N.  Y., 
but  returned  to  Connecticut  in  1828  and  was  appointed  Clerk  of  the 
Superior  Court  for  Xew  Haven  County  in  183 1,  holding  that  office 
seven  years.     He  died  in  Xew  Haven  in  1843. 

Royal  R.  Hin:\iax  was  born  in  Southbury,  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1804  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  181 1  and  practiced 
for  twenty  years  at  Roxbury.  In  1835  ^'^^  "^^'^^  elected  Secretary  of 
State  and  held  that  office  for  seven  years.  He  was  largely  en- 
gaged in  compiling  and  i^ublishing  matters  relating  to  the  early 
history  of  the  State,  and  in  other  historical  and  genealogical  labors. 
He  subsecjuently  removed  to  .\cw  York  City. 

SniEox  HiXMAX.  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1784,  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1790  and  engaged  in  his  profession  in  South- 
bury,  where  he  died  in  1825. 

Roland  HrrcircocK.  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Superior  Court, 
was  a  native  of  Burlington  in  Hartford  County.  He  was  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1844  and  located  in  Winsted,  where  he  died  on  April 
28th,  1889.     ricture,  page  114. 

The  following  was  imblished  at  the  time  of  his  death  : 
"Roland  Hitchcock,  ex-judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  died  Sun- 
day afternoon  at  his  residence  in  Winsted.  aged  66.  He  was  a 
native  of  Burlington  and  wrote  the  history  of  that  town  for  the 
Alemorial  History  of  Hartford  County.  He  studied  law  with  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Holabird  in  Winsted.  which  town  he  afterward 
made  his  residence.  He  was  clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  1852  and  1853.  postmaster  from  1853  to  1861,  and  judge  of  pro- 
bate six  terms.  He  was  appointed  on  the  Superior  Court  bench  in 
1874,  by  Governor  IngersoU.  and  served  until  1882.  His  last  pub- 
lic service  was  as  representative  from  Winchester  in  1883.  when  he 
served  on  the  judiciary  committee.  Since  that  time  he  has  been  en- 
gaged in  the  practice  of  law  in  \\'insted." 

Elkaxah  H!  Hodges  was  born  in  Torrington  in  1812  and  was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1837.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Cali- 
fornia and  died  in  that  State  in  1862. 

Wilija:\[  S.  Holai-.ird  was  born  in  Canaan  in  1794  and  attended 
the  Litchfield  Law  School.  Was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1816  and 
commenced  his  practice  in  Colebrook,  removing  to  Winsted  in  1824. 
He  was  District  Attorney  under  President  Jackson's  administration. 
In  1842  and  1844  he  was  Lieutenant  Governor  of  this  State.  Died 
May  22.  1855. 


252  LITCHFIELD  COUXTY  BLXCII  AND  BAR 

Marcus  H.  Holcojmb  was  born  in  New  Hartford,  Litchfield 
County  November  28,  1844.  He  received  his  higher  education  at 
Wesleyan  Academy  and  studied  law  with  the  late  Judo^e  Jared  B. 
Foster.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  County  Bar  in  1871  and 
soon  after  removed  to  Southington,  where  he  has  since  resided. 
He  has  been  Judge  of  Probate  for  more  than  thirty  years  and  Treas- 
urer of  the  County  of  Hartford  since  1893  ;  a  Commissioner  of  the 
State  l\jlice  since  its  creation  ;  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  in  1902;  he  has  been  representative  and  senator  several 
times  in  the  General  Assembly  and  was  unanimously  elected  speaker 
one  term.  He  holds  many  offices  of  trust  and  responsibility  in 
Southing^ton  and  is  closely  identified  with  all  its  business  interests. 
Is  now  the  Attorney  General  of  Connecticut.      (See  page  167.) 

Waltkr  Hoixo:mi!,  born  in  Xew  Hartford  October  13,  1853. 
Admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1881.  removed  to  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  where  he 
practiced  until  1896  he  then  returned  to  Connecticut  and  located  in 
Torrington,  where  he  now  resides.     Is  Judge  of  the  Borough  Court. 

David  F.  Hollister,  born  in  Washington  March  31,  1826,  grad- 
uated at  Yale  in  1851  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  the  same  year. 
He  commenced  practice  in  Salisbury,  removing  in  1854  to  Bridge- 
port, where  he  resided  and  died  Ivlay  4,  1906.  He  held  the  office 
01  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  for  Connecticut  a  number  of  years. 
The  lollowing  notice  is  from  the  Bridgeport  Standard : 

The  (\eath  of  the  Hon.  David  F.  Hollister  removes  another  of 
the  older  citizens  of  Bridgeport  who  had  been  a  prominent  factor 
in  its  development  and  in  all  the  reputable  and  admirable  elements 
of  its  progress.  Mr.  Hollister  distinguished  himself  by  his  probity 
and  ability  in  every  station  which  he  filled  and  as  a  government 
official,  occupying  an  important  place  for  many  years  he  made  a 
record  that  is  hardly  paralleled  in  that  department  for  accuracy, 
efficiency  and  thoroughness.  As  a  citizen  he  answered  every  obli- 
gation ;  as  a  ])rofessional  man  he  was  honorable  and  able  and  in 
every  walk  in  life  he  set  an  example  to  be  emulated.  He  lived  a 
long  and  useful  life  and  he  leaves  a  memory  to  be  cherished  with 
aflfection  and  respect  by  all  who  were  associated  with  him. 

John  B.  Hollister,  born  in  Litchfield  in  1860,  the  only  son  of 
Gideon  H.  Hollister  ;  was  admitted  t(^  the  Bar  in  1884.  Has  never 
practiced. 

Joiix  M.  Holly,  born  in  Salisbury  and  graduated  from  Yale  Col- 
lege in  1820  and  was  admitted  to  this  I>ar  in  1824.  He  removed  to 
western  New  York,  became  a  member  of  Congress  and  died  in 
Florida  while  holding  that  position. 

George  B.  Holt,  born  in  Norfolk  in  1790.  attended  the  Litch- 
field Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  181 2  and  removed 
to  Dayton,  Ohio  in  1818,  where  he  became  a  very  prominent  man 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 


253 


in  the  prosecution  of  its  system  of  internal  improvements.  He  was 
Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Ohio  and  its  President  Judge  for 
fourteen  years. 

GiDEOX  H.  HOLLIS- 
TER,  born  in  Washing- 
ton in  18 1 7,  and  grad- 
uated from  Yale  Col- 
lege in  1840.  and  was 
admitted  to  this  Uar 
in  1842.  and  soon 
after  located  in  Litch- 
tield,  but  has  resided 
and  practiced  at  var- 
inus  times  in  other 
places.  lie  was  Clerk 
of  the  Courts  1844  to 
1845,  'I'l'l  from  1847 
to  1850.  Under  Pres- 
ident Andrew  John- 
son he  was  the  United 
States  Minister  to 
Ilayti.  He  is  best 
known  (if  from  his 
literary  work,  l)eing 
author  of  several  His- 
torical novels  a  n  d 
plays.  He  was  sin- 
gularly gifted  in  mak- 
ing and  delivering 
addresses  on  ])ul)lic 
celebrations  and  anniversary  occasions.  In  1855  he  published  the 
History  of  Connecticut  in  two  large  volumes.  He  died  at  Litch- 
field March  21,  1881.     His  obituary  is  in  \'ol.  48,  Conn.  Reports. 

Uriel  Holmes,  born  in  Hartland  in  1765,  graduated  at  Yale  in 
1784  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  antl  located  at  Litchfield.  He  was 
State  Attorney  from  1807  to  18 14.  A  member  of  the  General  As- 
sembly from  Litchfield  nine  times  ;  Judge  of  the  County  Court  from 
1814  to  1817;  a  member  of  Congress  in  1817  and  1818.  He  died 
May  18,  1827. 

Samuel  ^IilES  Hopkixs,  L.  L.  D.  was  born  in  Waterbury  1772, 
but  in  early  life  removed  to  Goshen,  studied  at  Yale,  but  refused 
graduation,  studied  at  Judge  Reeve's  Law  School  and  was  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1793.  He  removed  to  the  State  of  New  York  and 
was  engaged  in  large  real  estate  transactions.  He  was  a  member 
of  Congress  and  held  many  other  high  official  positions.  He  died 
at  Geneva,  X.  Y.  October  8.  1837. 


254  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BF.NCII  AXD  BAR 

Samuel  B.  Horne,  of  Winsted  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1869 
from  that  town,  having"  served  through  the  Civil  War  where  he  gain- 
ed the  rank  of  Captain.  He  was  an  aide  on  the  staff  of  Governor 
Phineas  Lounsburv  and  was  Commander  of  the  Connecticut  Dept., 
G.  A.  R.  He  was  United  States  consul  under  President  Harrison. 
Labor  Commissioner  for  Connecticut  from  1895  to  1899.  He 
now  resides  and  practices  at  Winsted ;  holds  a  ^Medal  of  Honor 
Badge.  His  practice  is  mostly  confined  to  recovering  estates  from 
foreign  countries. 

F.  H.  HoRTox,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1846. 

Isaac  M.  Hoktox,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1882  from  Harwinton. 

Samuel  C.  HosFord.  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1850  from  Canaan: 
never  practiced ;  became  a  teacher  and  removed  to  New  Jersey, 
where  he  died. 

JoHX  D.  Howe,  studied  law  with  Judge  Hitchcock  in  Winsted, 
admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1866  from  Winsted  and  soon  after  his  ad- 
mission removed  to  St.  Paul,  Minn,  where  he  holds  a  large  practice 
as  a  railroad  attorney. 

Edward  J.  HuiiiiARD,  born  in  Bethlehem,  studied  with  Wm.  Coth- 
ren,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1864  and  removed  to  Trimdad, 
Colorado,  where  he  is  now  in  practice. 

Joiix  T.  HuBi'.ARD,  born  in  Litchfield  in  1856,  graduated  from 
Yale  College  in  1880,  studied  law  at  Yale  Law  School  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Xew  Haven  Bar  in  1883.  Now  resides  at  Litchfield. 
Represented  his  native  town  in  the  General  Assembly  1901  and  1903  ; 
is  now,  (1907)  Judge  of  Probate  for  District  of  Litchfield. 

Joiix  H.  HuiiBARD,  born  in  Salisbury  in  1804  and  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1826.  He  began  practice  in  his  native  town,  but  in 
1854  removed  to  Litchfield.  Was  elected  member  of  Congress  from 
his  district  in  1863  and  1865.  Was  State  Attorney  of  the  County 
in  1844  and  again  in  1849.  He  enjoyed  a  lucrative  practice  and  was 
one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  the  State.     He  died  July  30,  1872. 

The  following  notice  of  the  death  of  this  distinguished  meml)er 
of  our  Bar,  is  from  the  Litchfield  paper  and  v^-ritten  by  his  neighbor 
and  friend,  Hon.  Henry  P>.  Graves: 

The  Plon.  John  H.  Hubbard  died  in  this  village  on  the  30th  of 
July,  1872.  The  deceased  was  born  in  Salisbury  in  November,  1804 
and  was  therefore  at  his  death  past  sixty-seven  years  of  age.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  Countv  T5ar  in  Ai)ril  1826  and  soon 
after  commenced  practicing  law  in  his  native  town,  in  the  village 
of  Lakeville,  where  he  continued  in  a  very  successful  l:)usincss  until 
about  seventeen  years  since  when  he_  removed  to  Litchfield.  Here 
he  wks  constantly  occupied  in  his  profession,  being  engaged  in  most 
of  the  important  causes  tried  in  our  higher  courts  until  his  election 


COL.    SAMUEL   P..    IIOKXE 


BIOGRAPIIICAI,  XOTES  255 

to  Congress  in  1863,  from  this  District.  He  was  again  returned 
to  Congress  in  1865.  Having  served  his  four  years  in  Congress, 
he  again  returned  to  the  practice  of  the  law  and  continued  it  till 
within  a  few  weeks  of  his  death. 

He  was  very  industrious,  energetic,  and  perserving;  never  dis- 
couraged by  an  adverse  decision,  where  there  was  an  opportunity 
to  pursue  the  cause  of  his  client  further,  and  was  often  victorious 
in  the  court  of  review,  where  he  had  been  overruled  in  the  inferior 
courts. 

In  the  course  of  his  professional  career  he  had  a  lucrative  prac- 
tice and  for  many  years  was  one  of  the  more  prominent  lawyers  in 
tliis  county.  He  served  five  years  as  State  Attorney  of  the  county 
in  which  position  he  gave  general  satisfaction  ;  he  was  also  State 
Senator  from  the  17th  District  two  terms  and  served  in  various 
(ither  public  relations  and  in  all  of  them  acquitted  himself  with 
honor.  He  was  a  good  citizen  ;  liberal,  kind,  and  generous  to  the 
poor,  and  always  ready  to  contribute  his  full  share  to  all  objects 
of  worthy  charity.  As  a  husband  and  parent,  he  could  not  do 
enough  for  those  so  nearly  connected  ti)  him,  and  his  afifections  knew 
no  bounds  or  limit.  The  deceased  leaves  a  widow,  three  sons,  and 
a  daughter,  surviving  him.  to  mourn  his  loss.  Though  his  death 
had  been  expected  for  several  days,  owing  to  the  character  of  his 
disease,  vet  our  community  was  not  ]:)repared  to  meet  with  so  great 
an  affliction  and  deeply  sympathize  with  the  stricken  family  in  their 
great  sorrow.     Picture  on  ])age  107. 

Frank  W.  HrnnARi).  born  in  Litchfield  in  1861.  graduated  at 
Yale  College  in  1888  and  from  Yale  Law  School  in  1890  and  was 
admitted  to  tlie  Bar.  After  a  few  years  practice  in  Torrington  he 
removed  to  Flushing,  N.  Y.,  and  is  Attornev  for  Xew  York  Citv 
Railway  Co. 

Frank  L.  HungerFord  of  Xew  Britain  was  born  in  Torrington 
in  1843  and  entered  the  L^niversity  of  A'ermont  in  i860.  From 
1862  to  1864  he  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Senator  Edmunds,  and 
graduated  at  the  Harvard  Law  School  in  1865  being  admitted  to 
the  Bar  in  Burlington  in  1865  and  to  this  Bar  in  1866.  He  prac- 
ticed in  Torrington  for  three  years,  then  removed  to  Xew  Britain, 
where  he  has  been  Judge  of  Probate  as  well  as  City  Attorney. 

Levi  HuNGERFORn,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  18^4  from  Sherman. 
He  was  a  Lieutenant  in  the  28th  C.  \\  and  died  in  service  August 
9,  1863. 

Joseph  D.  Humphrey,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  181 2  from  Goshen. 
He  was  born  in  Goshen  ^larch  i.S.  1780.  and  after  admission  settled 
in  practice  in  Torrineford,  a  oart  of  Torrington,  for  a  few  years, 
when  he  removed  to  X'^orton,  Summit  County,  Ohio,  where  he  died 
February  4,  1839. 


256  LiTLxiFlEU)  COL'XTY  P.KXCII  AXD  BAR 

Van  R.  Hu:\ii'Iikkv,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1820.  Was  born 
in  Goshen  Jnly  28,  1800.  Soon  after  his  admission  to  the  Bar  he 
removed  to  Ohio,  where  he  became  a  Judge  and  a  very  prominent 
man.     He  (bed  in  Hudson,  Ohio  September  5,  1864. 

Hiram  Hunt,  a  native  of  Canaan,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1820;  removed  to  Xew  York  City. 

RkubEx  Hunt,  a  native  of  Canaan,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1812, 
and  removed  to  IlHnois. 

RoiiKRT  Hunt  is  on  Connecticut  Register,  1859  as  Attorney  in 
Falls  Village. 

JaeEz  W.  Huntington,  born  in  Norwich  in  1788,  graduated  at 
Yale  College  in  1806,  studied  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1810.  He  located  in  Litchfield  until  1834, 
when  he  removed  to  Norwich.  He  was  a  Judge  of  the  Superior 
and  Su]3reme  Courts.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  Congress  sev- 
eral terms,  and  L'nited  States  Senator  in  1840.  He  died  in  1874. 
(See  Boardman's  Sketches,  page  64.) 

Ja.mks  Hi^NTiNGTON  was  born  in  Coventry,  Tolland  County, 
Connecticut,  June  4th.  1833,  the  son  of  Edward  G.  and  Eliza  Clark 
Huntington,  and  died  at  his  residence  in  Woodbury,  Litchfield 
County,  May  2nd,  1908. 

Air.  Huntington  received  a  high  school  education  and  taught 
school  in  his  native  town.  Later  he  attended  Wilbraham  Academy, 
and  the  New  York  Conference  Seminary  at  Cbarlottsville.  N.  Y., 
and  in  1857  was  graduated,  with  the  degree  of  L.  L.  B.,  from  the 
State  and  National  Law  School  at  Poughkeepsie,  at  which  time  he 
was  admitted  to  the  Bar  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Subsequently  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Alvin  P.  Hyde  and 
Loren  P.  Waldo  at  Tolland,  Connecticut,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
Bar  of  Tolland  County  in  April,  1859. 

After  being  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  the  spring  of  1859  he  opened 
an  office  in  Woodbury,  where  he  continued  in  active,  honorable 
:ui(l  successful  practice  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  at  which  time 
he  was,  and  for  a  long  number  of  }ears  had  been  president  of  the 
Litchfield  County  Bar  and  Law  Library  Associations. 

Tn  April.  1861  he  was  elected  Judge  of  the  Probate  District  of 
Woodbury,  comprising  the  towns  of  Woodbury,  Bethlehem  and 
Southbury,  which  office  be  retained  continuously,  with  the  exception 
of  one  term,  until  (lis(|ualified  b\-  age  limitations  in  1903.  His  wise 
and  judicious  administration  of  the  office  of  Judge  of  Probate  for 
a  ])eri()(l  of  over  forty  years  won  for  him  a  high  standing  as  a  pro- 
bate lawyer,  and  the  unqualified  confidence  and  esteem  of  his  fel- 
low men. 

On  Jul\  4th.  1874  he  was  appointed  State's  Attorney  for  Litch- 
field County,  filling  that  office  with  marked  ability  until  June,  1896, 


JAMES   IIUISTTINGTON. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES  257 

nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  during"  that  time  tried  many  im- 
portant cases,  and  became  renowned  as  a  States  Attorney  in  his 
tireless  effort  to  eradicate  crime  and  bring  criminals  to  justice ;  some 
of  the  most  bitterly  contested  cases  being  in  connection  with  liquor 
prosecutions,  and  yet  at  all  times  he  displayed  the  commendable  dis- 
position of  tempering  justice  with  mercy.  At  the  close  of  his  twenty- 
two  years  of  service  as  States  Attorney  the  members  of  the  Bar 
of  Litchfield  County  presented  him  with  handsomely  engrossed  reso- 
lutions expressive  of  their  high  regard  and  esteem  for  him  in  the 
conduct  of  that  important  and  off-times  unpleasant  office. 

He  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Commission  of  State  Police 
at  the  time  of  its  organization  in  1903,  and  took  a  great  interest  in 
the  workings  of  that  police  power,  in  the  detection  and  ]nmishment 
of  crime,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

Mr.  Huntington  always  took  an  active  interest  in  public  aft'airs, 
and  in  politics  was  a  democrat,  representing  the  town  of  Woodbury 
in  the  Legislature  in  1874-5.  and  was  Senator  from  the  old  sixteenth 
district  in  1877-8.  In  1904  he  was  a  candidate  for  Secretary  of 
State  on  the  Democratic  ticket. 

Mr.  Huntington  was  married  January  r)th.  1863  to  Miss  Rebecca 
Huntley  Hurd,  of  Honesdale,  Ta.,  who  died  February  28th,  1865, 
leaving  one  daughter,  Rebecca.  On  June  iith,  18(18  he  iuatned 
Miss  Helen  Elizabeth  Parker,  of  \\'oodl)ury.  who  survived  him, 
together  with  two  daughters,  Rebecca  Huntington  and  Eunice 
Huntington  Tomlinson,  and  one  grandson,  James  Huntington  Tom- 
linson. 

For  over  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Judge  Huntington  was  engaged 
in  nearly  all  the  large  legal  battles  in  Litchfield  County,  and  was 
considered  one  of  the  giants  of  the  Litchfield  County  liar,  always 
honest  with  the  court,  fair  to  his  opponents  and  faithful  to  his  clients. 

He  was  not  a  great  orator,  but  his  honesty  of  jnirpose,  integrity 
of  character  and  thorough  familiarity  with  the  law  and  facts  of 
the  case  on  hand,  together  with  his  clear,  concise  and  logical  presen- 
tation, made  him  a  tower  of  strength  in  the  courts,  and  especially 
before  a  Litchfield  County  Jury.  He  abounded  in  quaint  simile,  and 
many  times  the  studied  argument  of  his  opponent  would  fall  before 
some  simple  homley  illustration,  delivered  at  the  oppertune  time,  in 
his  inimitable  style. 

While  always  firm,  and  sometimes  stern,  in  the  performance  of 
his  duty,  he  possessed  a  most  generous  disposition,  and  was  ever 
courteous  and  obliging  to  his  brother  lawyers  and  especially  to  the 
younger  members  of  the  Bar,  to  all  of  whom  he  became  endeared, 
and  was  affectionately  known  as  "L^ncle  Jim."  He  loved  his  pro- 
fession and  the  memlDers  of  the  Bar,  and  their  honest  and  oft  ex- 
pressed love  and  esteem  for  him,  was  a  matter  of  great  comfort  t() 
him  in  his  declining  years. 


258  LITCTIFIKI.D  COUXTY  BEXCII  AXD  BAR 

His  commanding  form  and  genial  presence  were  in  evidence  at 
nearly  every  official  meeting  of  the  Bar,  and  were  among  the  most 
pleasant  features  of  the  annual  Bar  banquets. 

Socially.  ]\lr.  Huntington  was  of  a  domestic  nature,  and  de- 
lighted in  the  companionship  of  his  home,  family  and  surroundings, 
believing  in  the  simplicity  of  the  nineteenth  century  customs  rather 
than  the  pomp  and  glitter  of  twentieth  century  fads.  He  was  a 
great  lover  of  nature  and  would  spend  hours  at  a  time  roaming- 
through  the  woods,  fields  and  gardens  wdiere  every  tree,  plant  and 
flower  had  for  him  a  noble  sentiment  to  reveal,  and  he  took  an  active 
interest  in  their  growth  and  protection. 

Mr.  Huntington  was  a  member  of  the  school  board  and  did  much 
to  build  up  and  strengthen  the  educational  system  of  the  town  of 
Woodbury.  He  was  always  active  in  his  support  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  to  which  religious  denomination  he  belonged.  The  high 
esteem  in  which  ^Ir.  Huntington  was  held  by  the  citizens  of  Wood- 
bury was  in  a  measure  evidenced  by  the  memorial  services  held  in 
that  town  on  the  evening  of  June  28th,  1908.  and  the  proposed  mem- 
orial fountain  to  be  erected  to  his  memory. 

As  a  practicing  attorney  Mr.  Huntington  stood  in  the  front 
ranks,  not  only  of  the  Bar  of  Litchfield  County,  but  also  of  the  State 
of  Connecticut,  and  yet  the  characteristics  which  stand  forth  most 
prominently  to  commemorate  his  memory,  were  his  nobility  of  char- 
acter, sincerity  of  purpose,  lof  ly  ideals  and  generous  disposition ; 
born  of  New  England  ancestors,  reared  in  a  Xew  England  climate, 
he  lived  and  died  an  illustrous  example  of  christian  manhootl. 

William  F.  HurlbuT,  born  in  Winsted,  Conn.,  January  27,  1835, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1859.  He  resided  in  W'insted  and 
was  the  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  and  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
for  Litchfield  County  since  1872,  excepting  three  years  during  which 
time  he  was  County  Health  Officer.  He  died  at  Winsted,  April  11, 
1901,  aged  f^C).      (See  picture  on  page  142.) 

Henry  C.  Ivks,  admitted  in  1832. 

George  W.  Jacobs,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1820. 

Daniel  Jaolia,  Jr.,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1819.  Practiced  in 
Connecticut  about  twenty  years. 

George  P.  JExks.  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1856. 

EbEnEzER  Jesup,  Jr.,  admitted  to  the  lUir  in  1826. 

Ezra  Ji^weu,,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  18 10  from  Salisbury. 

Frederick  A.  Jewell,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1881  from  Salis- 
bury. He  removed  to  Xew  Hartford,  where  he  is  now  in  practice. 
Is  Judge  of  Probate.  He  represented  the  town  in  the  General  As- 
sembly, 1907. 


DIOGRAPIIICAL  NOTES  259 

Amos  J\I.  Joiixsox,  born  in  Southbury,  October  21,  1816,  ad- 
mitted to  the  Kar  in  1851.  Died  at  the  Old  People's  Home  in  Hart- 
ford, April  6,  1879. 

Elisiia  Johxsox,  born  in  Barkhamsted,  May  i.  1818.  Gradu- 
ated at  Trinity  College  in  1835.  Attended  the  Yale  Law  School 
and  was  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1840.  He  practiced  in  Plvmonth 
until  1855  ^vhen  he  removed  to  Hartford.  He  was  Clerk  of  this 
Court  from  1850  to  185 1.     He  died  in  Hartford,  February  18.  1891. 

Sor.ox  B.  Joiixsox  was  born  in  Cornwall,  admitted  to  this  Bar 
in  1863.  He  published  the  Litchfield  Sentinel  from  1866  to  1873, 
then  removed  to  his  farm  in  Cornwall,  where  he  died,  Mav  30,  1890, 
aged  51  years. 

Walter  \\'.  Johxsox  was  admitted  in  1866.     He  never  practiced. 

Sylvester  Johxsox,  admitted  in  1813  from  Cornwall,  of  which 
town  he  was  a  native. 

H.  Roger  Joxes,  Jr..  born  at  Xew  Hartford,  June  22nd,  1882, 
attended  public  schools  in  Xew  Hartford  and  Gilbert  School.  Win- 
sted,  graduated  from  the  latter,  June,  1901.  Entered  Cornell  Uni- 
versity Law  School  at  Ithaca.  X".  Y..  September.  1903  and  gradu- 
ated June,  1906.  Became  a  member  of  the  Xew  York  Bar  in  Sep- 
tember, 1906  and  the  Connecticut  Bar  February.  1907.  At  present 
is  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  X"ew  Hartford  Tribune,  and  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  law  at  X'ew  Hartford. 

Walter  S.  Ji'od  was  born  in  Litchfield  in  1859,  graduated  at 
Yale  Law  School  in  1882  and  was  admitted  to  the  X^ew  Haven  Bar 
that  same  year.  Settled  in  Litchfield  and  was  Clerk  of  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas  from  1894-7.  ^^^^  in  the  Legislature  in  1891 
and  1893,  serving-  on  the  judiciary  committee  the  last  named  year. 
Xow  resides  in  Xew  York  City. 

George  H.  Judsox"  was  a  native  of  \\'oodbury.  admitted  to  the 
Bar  in  1845  '^"'^^  removed  to  Texas. 

S.  ^^^  Jinsox  was  a  native  of  Cornwall  and  a  graduate  of  Union 
College.  \\'as  admitted  to  practice  in  1836.  He  located  in  New 
York  City.  It  is  said  of  him,  "As  a  lawyer  he  is  more  distinguished 
for  his  learninof,  intee'ritv  and  honestv,  than  for  his  brilliancv  as  a 
pleader.  If  lawyers  were  more  generally  of  his  style,  we  should 
have  fewer  law-suits  and  more  justice." 

Charles  A.  Judsox  was  a  native  of  Washington.  Held  the  of- 
fice of  SheriiT  from  1835  to  1838.  After  his  term  of  office  he  re- 
moved to  X"ew  Haven  and  engaged  in  mercantile  l)usiness. 

James  D.  Keese  was  born  in  the  City  of  X'ew  York,  entered  Yale 
College,   but   did   not   finish   his   course   of   studies   there;   came   to 


26o  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BEXCII  AND  BAR 

Litchfield  and  studied  law  with  Judge  Seymour,  and  was  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  April,  1852.  He  immediately  set  up  practice  in  Wood- 
bury, but  in  less  than  one  year  removed  to  Birmingham,  Conn., 
where  he  died. 

EbEnEzek  r>.  KErj.or.G  was  a  native  of  Xorwich,  Conn.,  and  for 
some  years  was  a  school  teacher  coming  to  Litchfield  from  Nauga- 
tuck,  "where  he  had  been  Principal  of  the  schools.  He  studied  law 
with  George  A.  Hickox,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1879. 
After  a  brief  practice  in  Litchfield  he  removed  to  Denver,  Colorado, 
where  he  died. 

WiLLiAiM  KelsEy  practiced  law  in  Winchester  in  1850,  and  in 
1856  removed  to  Cheshire,  where  he  died. 

DwiGiiT  C.  KiLBOURN  was  l)orn  in  Litchfield,  October  9th,  1837. 
He  read  law  with  Seymour  &^  Seymour  and  Henry  B.  Graves,  of 
Litchfield,  and  after  a  three  years  service  in  the  war  of  the  Re- 
bellion was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  April,  1866.  Practiced  in  Litch- 
field until  1887  when  he  was  appointed  Clerk  of  the  Superior  and 
Supreme  Courts  of  Connecticut  for  Litchfield  County,  which  office 
he  now  holds. 

Georce  Kixgsbury,  admitted  to  this  Bar  as  of  Canaan  in  1794. 
Mr.  Boyd  in  his  annals  of  Winchester,  refers  to  him  as  being  as- 
sessed in  that  town  in  1796  for  his  faculty  as  attorney-at-law,  being- 
the  "first  legal  luminary  that  shed  its  ligiit  on  this  benighted  town. 
His  stay  seems  to  have  been  as  brief  as  a  comet's  visit."  He  re- 
moved to  Poultney,  Vt.,  where  he  died,  April  30,  1803. 

JoTTX  Kixr.sr.rRY,  born  in  Xorwich,  West  Farms  (now  Frank- 
Im),  December  31,  1762.  Graduated  at  Yale,  1786,  and  1788  en- 
tered the  Law  School  at  Litchfield,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1790,  and  the  next  year  opened  an  office  in  Waterbury  and  soon 
became  a  leading-  citizen  of  that  town.  He  was  seventeen  times  in 
the  Legislature.  He  was  Judge  of  the  County  Court  about  twenty 
years.  He  died  August  26,  1844.  He  was  the  grandfather  of 
Frederick  J.  King.sbury,  Esq.  of  Waterbury,  the  distinguished  banker 
and  historian. 

Daniel  M.  Kino  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1870  from  Water- 
town.     He  located  in  the  West  and  died  there. 

EpiTRAnr  KiRi!^-,  born  in  Litchfield  in  1756,  in  a  part  of  the  town 
now  included  in  Washington.  See  Article  "First  Law  Reports" 
for  his  biography. 

Reynold  jM.  Kirby  was  a  son  of  Ephraim  Kirby  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1810. 

Philemon  Kirkuii.  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1799,  resided  at  Win- 
sted.  In  Boyds  Annals  of  Winchester  is  a  very  interesting  account 
of  this  eccentric  man. 


BIOGRAPIIICAI,  XOTES  261 

Willia:m  KxAiT  was  a  member  of  the  Fairfield  County  Bar,  but 
practiced  in  New  Milford  a  few  years  prior  to  1880,  when  he  re- 
moved to  Denver,  Colorado. 

FrKdKkick  M.  KokiilivR,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1885,  resided  in 
Litchfield,  but  soon  removed  with  his  family  to  Alontana. 

Edward  A.  KuxKi:r,,  practicetl  at  Torrington  a  year  or  two  prior 
to  1878  and  at  a  later  period  was  at  Thomaston. 

Joiix  R.  Laxdox  was  born  in  Salisbury,  September  14,  1765,  and 
married  in  Litchfield,  Anna  Champion,  daughter  of  Rev.  Judah 
Champion,  January  10,  1796,  and  settled  at  Litchfield.  He  was 
Sheriff  from  1801  to  1818.  After  his  term  of  office  expired  he  re- 
moved to  Castleton.  A't..  where  he  died,  February  27,  1851.  JMr. 
Landon  during  his  term  also  had  unpleasant  duties.  Here  is  sen- 
tence that  he  had  to  execute : 

'AVhereas  Samuel  W'hitmore,  of  New  Milford,  in  said  county,  be- 
fore the  Superior  Court  holden  at  Litchfield  in  said  county,  on  the 
1st  Tuesday  of  February  1804,  was  legally  convicted  of  Adnltrw 
and,  on  consideration,  was  by  the  Judges  of  said  Court  sentenced 
and  adjudged  to  be  whi])ped  on  his  naked  body  Ten  Sf rifles,  and 
to  be  stigmatized  or  burnt  on  his  forehead  with  the  letter  "A"  on  a 
hot  iron,  and  to  wear  a  halter  about  his  neck  on  the  outside  of  his 
garments  during  his  aliode  in  this  State  of  Connecticut — and  as 
often  as  he  shall  be  found  without  his  said  halter,  worn  as  aforesaid, 
upon  information  and  proof  of  the  same  before  any  Assistant  or 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  to  be  whipped  not  exceeding  thirty  stripes,  and 
to  pay  the  cost  of  this  ])rosccution,  etc."  All  these  sentences  were 
thus  executed  to  the  letter,  as  appears  from  sherift"s  returns. 
In  executions  for  horse  stealing,  the  jM'isoners  vv'ere  sentenced 
to  be  twice  set  astride  a  wooden  horse  and  kept  there  an  hour  and 
then  whipped  fifteen  stripes  on  the  naked  body,  with  an  interval  of 
a  month  between  two  punishments.  A  man  convicted  of  forgery 
in  1788  was  sentenced  to  stand  twice  in  the  pillory,  and  was  "dis- 
enabled to  give  any  evidence  or  verdict  in  any  court  or  before  anv 
Magistrate  or  Justice  of  the  Peace." 

Joseph  Lake,  admitted  in  1822. 

Edgar  ]\L  Laxdox  of  Salisbury,  admitted  in  1824. 

Howard  F.  Laxdox  of  Salisbury  was  born  in  Sharon  in  1869 
and  graduated  at  the  Amenia  Semina'ry.  He  studied  law  with  Hon. 
Donald  T.  Warner  in  Salisbury  and  graduated  at  the  Albanv  Law 
School  in  1890.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  Bar  the  follow- 
ing year  and  formed  a  partnership  with  :\Ir.  Warner  in  Salisbury. 
As  Senator  from  the  19th  district  he  made  an  enviable  record  in  the 
session  of  1901. 


262  litciifie;ld  county  bench  and  p.ar 

Hiram  P.  Lawrence  of  Winsted  was  born  at  Xorfolk  in  1833. 
He  fitted  for  Yale  Colleg-e  at  Xorfolk  Academy,  studied  law  with 
Jiidg-e  F.  D.  Fyler  in  Winsted  and  was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield 
Bar  in  1873.     Died  August  y,  1908. 

Isaac  Leavenworth,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  181 5.  Settled  in 
Roxbury  where  he  practiced  for  twenty  years.  In  1837  he  removed 
to  New  Haven  and  engaged  in  other  Inisiness.  (  See  Sedgwick's 
fifty  years.) 

Bradley  D.  LEE,  born  in  Barkhamsted  ^larch  24,  1838.  Served 
in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  as  Quartermaster  of  the  Second  Connec- 
ticut, Heavy  Artillery.  Admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1856  and  removed 
to  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  where  he  Ijecame  a  leading  attorney.  Died  in  that 
city  May  10,  1897. 

CiiAUNCEY  Lee,  D.  D.,  born  in  Salisbury  X'ovember,  1763. 
Graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1784,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1786. 
He  practiced  a  few  years  and  then  relinquishing  his  profession,  en- 
tered the  Ministry  and  became  a  very  learned  and  impressive  preach- 
er. He  was  author  of  "Revival  Sermons,"  "Triumphs  of  Mrtue," 
a  metrical  paraphrase  of  the  Book  of  Job,  an  arithmetic,  and  several 
pamphlets.     He  died  in  Hardwick,  X\  Y.,  1842. 

Rev.  Alonzo  X'orton  Licwis.  ^I.  A.,  born  at  X'ew  Britain  Sep- 
tember 3,  1831.  Graduate  of  Yale,  class  of  1852.  For  several  years 
a  teacher  of  public  schools  and  academies.  Principal  of  Litchfield 
Academy  1852-4.  Studied  law  with  Hollister  and  Beeman  and  after- 
wards with  Judge  Charles  B.  Phelps  of  Woodbury,  whose  youngest 
daughter,  Sarah  ]Maria  he  married  X^ovember  28,  i860.  Admitted 
to  the  Bar  at  Litchfield  September,  1857.  Ordained  an  E]iiscopal 
clergyman  in  1866.  Rector  at  Bethlehem,  Connecticut,  Dexter, 
Maine,  Xew  Haven  and  Westport,  1866  to  1891.  From  1891  to 
1907  was  rector  of  Christ  Church,  jNIontpelier,  At.  He  died  in  X'ew 
Haven  September  12,  1907.  He  had  been  Secretary  of  the  ]\Iasonic 
A'eteran  Association  of  Connecticut  for  many  years.  \\'as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati  of  Connecticut. 

Da.\ii;e  W.  Lewis  was  a  native  of  Farmington.  Studied  law 
with  Judge  Reeve,  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1788.  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  P)ar  in  1796. 

J.\-MES  Lii.Ei'V,  admitted  in  1809  as  from  Sharon. 

Frank  D.  LixdslEy,  admitted  in  1882  from  X'orth  Canaan.  He 
located  at  Philmont,  Xew  York. 

Charles  D.  Loxr.i'i:i.i.()\v  was  a  native  of  ]\[aine,  but  studied  with 
^Ir.  Cothren  in  ^^'oo(lbury  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1861. 
He  located  in  Pennsvlvania. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTKS  263 

John"  J.  Lord,  admitted  in  1823  from  Sharon. 

Lynde;  Lord  was  the  second  Sheriff  of  the  County,  holding  the 
office  from  1771  to  1801,  about  thirty  years.  He  was  born  in  Lyme, 
Connecticut,  and  died  in  Litchfield  June   16,   1801,  aged  68  years. 

That  he  had  some  unpleasant  duties  to  perform  the  following 
returns  on  Executions  attest : 

The  execution  in  this  case  is  dated  1779  and  signed  by  Geo.  Pit- 
kin. Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court.  The  statute  of  blasphemy  then 
in  force  reads  as  follows : 

That  if  any  person  within  this  state  shall  presume  wilfully  to 
blaspheme  the  name  of  God  the  Father,  Son  or  Holy  Ghost,  either 
by  denying,  cursing  or  reproaching  the  true  God,  or  his  government 
of  the  World ;  every  person  so  offending  shall  be  punished  by  whip- 
ping on  the  naked  body,  not  exceeding  forty  stripes,  and  sitting  in 
the  pillory  one  hour ;  and  may  also  be  bound  to  his  good  behavior, 
at  the  discretion  of  the  Superior  Court,  who  shall  have  cognizance 
of  the  offence. 

The  nature  of  the  punishment  inflicted  will  most  concisely  appear 
from  the  following  return  of  the  officer  setting  forth  what  he  did  in 
pursuance  of  the  sentence  of  the  court : 

Litchfield,  23d  August,  1779. 

Then  by  virtue  of  the  within  Execution  took  the  within  named 
Samuel  Tousley  from  the  common  Goal  in  Litchfield  to  a  Gallos, 
viz,  erected  for  that  purpose,  and  set  him  thereon  with  a  Rope 
round  his  Neck  for  the  space  of  one  full  hour,  and  then  I  branded 
him  with  the  capital  Letter  B  with  a  hot  iron  on  his  forehead,  and 
then  tied  him  to  a  tail  of  a  Cart,  and  caused  him  to  be  whip'd  thirty- 
nine  Stripes  in  his  Naked  body,  in  the  whole, — at  four  of  the  most 
public  places  in  the  Town  of  Litchfield  and  then  returned  him  to 
the  Goal  from  whence  he  came. 

Test, 

LyxdiJ  Lord,   Sheriff'. 

Three  days  after  execution  of  the  sentence  Tousley  paid  the  cost 
in  the  case,  amounting  to  £153.  8  shillings  and  six  pence,  or  $531.42. 
This  would  imply  that  Tousley  must  have  been  a  man  of  consider- 
able property,  but  these  costs  were  probably  payable  in  paper  money 
worth  at  that  time  hardly  a  twentieth  of  its  face  value  in  specie. 

It  seems  that  tramps  were  not  unknown  in  Connecticut  in  our 
early  history.  A  transient  person  who,  "not  having  the  fear  of  God 
before  his  eyes,  but  being  moved  and  seduced  by  the  instigation  of 
the  devil"  burnt  some  buildings  in  Sharon,  "contrary  to  the  law  of 
this  colony  and  the  rights  of  mankind."  The  fellow  was  duly  con- 
victed and  sentenced,  and  the  following  sheriff's  return  shows  the 
nature  of  his  punishment.  After  being  duly  "bull  dozed''  at  the 
cart's  tail  by  the  sheriff",  he  was  remanded  to  jail  till  he  could  pro- 


264  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BKXCII  AXD  BAR 

cure  sureties  for  future  good  behaviour  and  had  paid  the  costs  of 
his  prosecution : 

LiTCHFiLLD,  2 1  St  Feb.,  1776. 

Then  by  virtue  of  the  within  Execution  I  caused  the  within  nam- 
ed John  Thomas  to  be  taken  from  the  common  Goal  in  Litchfield  to 
the  place  of  Execution  and  there  Set  upon  a  Gallos  with  a  Rope 
Round  his  neck  for  the  full  Term  of  one  hour  and  Then  tied  to  the 
Tail  of  a  Cart  and  Transported  to  four  of  the  most  public  places  in 
the  Town  of  Litchfield  and  there  whipped  on  his  naked  body  Thirty- 
nine  stripes  in  the  whole,  according"  to  the  within  Directions. 
Fees  40s.  Test, 

Lyxdl  Lord,  Sheriff. 

George;  LovLRIDGE  was  admitted  in  1840  and  practiced  a  short 
time  in  New  Milford. 

JoHX"  P.  LovEridgE.  This  name  appears  on  the  Connecticut  Reg- 
ister of  1842  as  an  attorney  at  New  Milford. 

Romeo  Lowery,  born  in  Farmington  in  1793,  graduated  at  Yale 
in  1818,  studied  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1820.  He  settled  in  Southington  and  was  a  highly  re- 
spected member  of  the  Hartford  County  Bar  and  a  Judge  of  the 
County  Court.     He  died  in  1856. 

Benedict  E,  Lyons  was  born  in  Thomaston,  June  13,  1883. 
Graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1905  and  from  the  Law  School  in 
1908,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1908.  Located  at  Hartford. 
Represents  Thomaston  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1909. 

Darius  Ly.max-^  was  a  son  of  Col.  David  Lyman,  born  in  Goshen 
July  19,  1789.  Was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  18 12  and  removed  to 
Ravenna,  Ohio.  He  died  at  the  residence  of  his  son-in-law,  W.  S. 
C.  Otis,  Esq.,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio  December  13,  1865. 

David  Lyman  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1841.  and  after  a 
practice  of  five  years  he  relinquished  the  profession  and  entered  the 
Ministrv  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Sa-MI'i;l  L^  ^r.w  was  a  son  of  Ensign  Moses  Lyman,  born  in 
Goshen  January  25.  1749.  He  graduated  from  Yale  College  and 
studied  Theology  and  afterwards  studied  law  and  was  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1773.  He  commenced  practice  at  Hartford  with  flatter- 
ing pros]iects  of  success,  but  relinquished  that  for  a  military  ap- 
pointment and  removed  to  Alassachusetts.  Here  he  became  a 
Judge  of  tlie  Circuit  Ctnu't  of  that  State  and  was  a  member  of  the 
first  Congress  convened  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
He  died  at  the  age  of  55  years. 

Wilbur  G.  Manchester  was  l)orn  in  Winchester  in  i860.  Grad- 
uated at  the  Yale  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1896. 
resides  and  practices  in  A\"insted.  and  lias  licen  active  in  Grange 
and  Prohibition  circles. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES  265 

Theodore  M.  AIaltbiE.  born  in  Xew  York  in  1842,  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1863  from  Norfolk  where  he  practiced  a  short  time  and 
then  removed  to  Hartford  where  he  now  resides. 

Cyrus  Marsh,  practiced  law  in  Kent  in  1761  and  was  after- 
wards a  ^linister  of  the  Gospel  of  that  place. 

Frank  W.  Marsh,  born  in  Xew  Milford  in  1855.  ijraduated  at 
Yale  College  in  1879,  admitted  to  the  Xew  Haven  Kar  in  1882,  re- 
moved to  Xew  Milford  where  he  now  resides. 

Sa:n[uEl  AFarsh.  born  in  Litchfield  in  176^,  gradnated  from  Yale 
College  in  1786,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1788  and  removed  to  X^or- 
folk.  Va. 

George  A.  Marvin  was  born  in  Xorfolk  in  1870,  graduated  from 
the  Yale  Law  School  in  190T  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar.  He 
resides  and  ]iractices  in  Xorth  Canaan. 

REyxoi.I)  ]\[ar\'in'  was  born  in  Lyme.  Conn.,  and  graduated  at 
Yale  College  in  1748.  He  located  in  Litchfield  on  the  formation  of 
the  X'ew  County,  and  was  the  first  lawyer  in  that  town.  He  was 
appointed  King's  Attorney  in  1764,  which  office  he  held  eight  years. 
After  this  period  he  does  not  appear  to  have  l)een  active  in  legal 
matters.     He  died  at  Litchfield  in  1802. 

Nicholas  Masti:ks,  born  in  1758.  graduated  from  ^'ale  College 
in  1779,  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1780,  resided  in  Xew  Milford,  where 
he  died  in  1795. 

CiL\RLES  S.  Masters,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1812  from  X^ew 
Milford. 

Li:'i'i:r  J.  McDermott  was  born  in  Torrington,  and  graduated 
from  Yale  Law  v^chool  in  1905  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar. 

James  H.  ]\IcAL\iion,  born  at  Xew  ]\Iilford,  June  24,  1839;  son 
of  John  and  Sophia  Wells  McMahon.  He  received  an  acedemic 
education,  but  did  not  enter  College.  He  studied  law  at  the  Albany 
Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  County  Bar  in  No- 
vember, 1863.  Judge  ]\rcMahon  was  a  well-known  lawyer  in  West- 
ern Connecticut,  and  for  many  years  was  engaged  on  one  side  or 
the  other  in  most  of  the  important  cases  in  that  section.  He  was 
elected  Judge  of  Probate  for  the  District  of  Xew  Milford  in  August, 
1864,  and  held  his  first  term  of  probate,  August  30th,  of  that  year. 
He  continued  in  office  until  the  first  ^londay  in  January,  1897.  In 
1873  and  1 875,  he  was  a  member  of  the  General  Assemblv.  He 
died  at  Xew  ^lilford,  August  9.1906.  His  funeral  was  very  largely 
attended  bv  lawyers  from  Litchfield,  Fairfield  and  X"ew  Haven 
Counties,  in  all  of  whose  courts  he  had  been  an  active  practioner, 
and  also  bv  the  members  of  the  Odd  Fellows,  and  the  Masonic 
bodies  of  which  he  had  been  a  member. 


266 


LiTCIlFlIvLD  COUXTY  BEXCII  AXD  BAR 


He  gave  in  his  will  the  sum  of  $1,200  to  the  Litchfield  County 
Bar  Association,  to  be  divided  between  each  of  the  Law  Libraries 
at  the  Litchfield,  W'insted  and  New  Milford  Court  houses.  His 
picture  may  be  found  on  page  136. 

William  H.  McMorris  was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  Bar  in 
1904.     He  removed  to  Pennsylvania. 

Waltlr  S.  ArivRRiLL,  born  in  New  Hartford  in  1829.  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1852  and  located  in  Southington,  where  he  resided 
until  his  death,  January  10,  1901. 

Paul  E.  Mkad  was  born  in  Westbrook,  Maine,  October  27,  1878. 
but  came  when  (|uite  young  to  Falls  X'illage,  Conn.  Studying  at 
Exeter  and  at  lirown's  University,  he  entered  the  Yale  Law  School, 
from  which  he  graduated  in  1904,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar. 


Chesterfiivld  C.  AIiddlebrooks 
was  Sherifl:'  of  Litchfield  County 
from  1903  to  1907.  He  was  born 
in  Sharon,  Conn.,  July  24.  i860.  In 
1880  he  went  to  Winsted  and  en- 
tered the  employ  of  the  Gilbert 
Clock  Company,  where  he  contin- 
ued for  fourteen  years.  He  was 
for  several  years  at  the  head  of  the 
police  force  in  Winsted,  and  was  a 
constable  of  the  Town  of  Winches- 
ter, in  which  offices  he  showed 
great  executive  ability.  In  1894  he 
was  appointed  deputy  sherift'  under 
Sheriff  Henry  J.  Allen,  and  in  1903 
was  elected  sheriff  by  a  good  ma- 
jority. At  the  expiration  of  his 
office  in  1907  he  was  appointed  by 
the  Judges  of  the  State,  one  of  the 
Jurv  Commissioners  for  Litchfield 
County. 

Edward  S.  Mkrwix,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1870  from  Xew  ^lil- 
ford. 

T.  Dwicirr  Mi;r\vix,  born  in  New  ^Milford.  Graduated  from 
Yale  College  in  1877.  After  a  short  practice  in  New  Milford,  he 
removed  to  New  York  City,  where  he  is  now  in  practice. 

Michael  F.  Mills,  born  in  Norfolk  in  1786,  admitted  to  this 
Bar  in  1801.  He  located  in  Norfolk,  d\ing  there  in  1857.  (See 
Sedgwick's  Address.) 

Roger  Mills  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1798  from  Norfolk 
and  settled  in  New  Hartford  about  1800. 


I^^^^^^^^^TO^^S.,-- 

^mms^p^^^^^S'Sy^   -^^^  ^ 

I                     ^^M 

,^^MlBH&K^fflifrilfll^M^-               '^^^ 

1 

^/ 

l|||||il^^;^ijif 

^jC^^HHP"^  \^ 

jK^^^^t^^^KtS^v         l^Ssk           SSSSS^l^f^^it^, 

wKglKmjmL    fl^^B 

BIOGRAPfllCAI,  NOTES  2U'J 

Roger  H.  Mills  was  a  son  of  Roger  Alills  and  was  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1836  and  located  at  Xew  Hartford.  Was  Secretary  of 
State  in  1849-1850,  after  which  he  removed  to  Beloit,  Wis.,  where 
he  died,  November  11,  1880,  aged  67. 

JoSEi'iL  ]\iiLLER,  a  gratUtate  of  AX'ilhams  College,  studied  at  the 
Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1802.  He 
located  at  Winchester,  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention in  1818.  In  1835  he  removed  to  Richland.  Mich.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  ^Michigan  Constitutional  Convention  and  also  U. 
S.  Attorney  for  the  District  of  ^Michigan. 

Matthew  Mixer,  Jr.,  born  in  Woodbury  in  1781,  graduated 
from  Yale  College  in  1801  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1804. 
Practiced  in  Woodbury,  which  town  he  represented  in  the  General 
Assembly  in  1830-1832.  and  was  also  Senator  of  his  district  in  1837. 
Died  at  Woodbury,  December  11,  1839. 

Gilbert  S.  Minor,  a  native  of  Cornwall,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
1848.  He  removed  to  Alexandria.  \'a.,  where  he  died  about  1880. 
(The  compiler  of  this  work  pursued  his  law  reading  while  in  the 
U.  S.  service  in  the  Civil  \\'ar,  from  books  borrowed  from  this 
gentleman's  library.) 

PiiiNEAS  AIixER,  born  in  A\'inchester  1777.  studied  at  Litchfield 
Law  School,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1797.  began  practice  in  his 
native  town,  but  removed  to  Litchfield  in  1816,  was  representative 
in  Congress  in  1832.  Died  at  IJtchfield.  September  16,  1839. 
(See  Boardman's  Sketches.) 

JoiTX  G.  Mitchell,  practiced  in  Salisbury.  (See  \\'arncr's 
Reminiscences.) 

Henrv  a.  Mitchell.  The  Connecticut  Register  savs,  he  was 
a  lawyer  in  Plymouth  in  1832.  He  removed  to  Bristol.  Was  States 
Attorney  for  Hartford  County,  1836  to  1838.  Was  editor  of  the 
Hartford  Times. 

JoiiN  G.  Alix,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  181 5  from  Woodbury. 

Henry  S.  Morrii,l,  born  in  New  Hampshire  in  1840,  graduated 
at  Wesleyan  College  in  1866.  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1870,  and 
for  a  few  years  thereafter  he  was  engaged  as  a  teacher,  but  finally 
removed  to  Waterbury,  where  he  was  a  Judge  of  the  City  Court. 
He  died  in  \Watcrbm-y.  July  12,  1884. 

T.  DwTC.iiT  ]\IoRRis,  born  in  Litchfield  in  1817,  graduated  from 
Pinion  College  in  1838,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1839  and 
located  at  Bridgeport.  Was  Colonel  of  the  14th  Connecticut  In- 
fantry in  the  Civil  W^ar.  Lnited  Statets  Consul  at  Havre,  France, 
1865  to  1869,  Secretary  of  State.  1876.  Died  at  Bridgeport,  Septem- 
ber 26,  1894. 


268  LITCHFIELD  COUXTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

Natiiax  MoksK,  a  graduate  of  Amherst  Colleg'e,  practiced  in 
New  Hartford  in  1876,  and  removed  to  Akron,  Ohio. 

CiiARLKS  E.  Moss,  born  in  Litchfield  and  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
1843.  Practiced  in  W'aterbnry  until  1847,  when  he  removed  to 
Iowa.  He  was  engaged  in  the  Mexican  War  as  a  Sergeant  of  the 
3rd  United  States  Dragoons,  and  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  as  a 
Lieutenant-Colonel  of  an  Iowa  Cavalry  Regiment. 

WiLLiA:\r  P.  MuLViLLE,  born  in  Norfolk  February  23,  1879. 
Graduated  at  Yale  Law  School  in  1906,  and  was  admitted  to  this 
Bar.     Located  at  New  Canaan,  Connecticut. 

Warren"  Muxgek,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1812  from  Norfolk. 

Fraxk  B.  Munk,  born  in  West  Stockbridge,  Mass.  November 
16.  i860.  Graduated  from  Dartmouth  College  in  1887,  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1891.  Resides  in  New  Hartford  and  practices  in  that 
town,  and  also  has  an  office  in  W^insted.  He  is  now,  and  has  been 
a  Referee  under  the  L'nited  States  Bankrupt  Law  since  its  passage. 

Harris  B.  ]\Iuxsox,  born  in  ]\Iiddlebury  in  1812,  admitted  to 
tliis  Bar  in  1850,  finally  located  at  Seymour,  where  he  died,  February 
2,  1885. 

TifADDEus  Muxsox,  practiced  in  Canaan  in  1809. 

Frederick  E.  MygaTT,  a  native  of  New  Milford,  studied  at  the 
Yale  Law  School,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1892.  Now  practices  in 
New  York  City. 

Edward  A.  Nellis  held  the  office  of  Sherifif  of  Litchfield  County 
from  1895  to  1903.  He  was  born  in  the  State  of  New  York,  but 
m  early  life  came  to  Winsted,  where  he  has  since  resided.  For 
many  years  he  carried  on  a  tinware  manufacturing  and  jobbing 
business.  He  was  a  soldier  in  the  Civil  War,  a  member  of  the  6th 
Connecticut  \"olunteer  Infantry,  he  was  wounded  at  the  siege  of 
Petersburg  in  1864  and  sufifcred  an  amputation  of  his  left  foot. 
(Sec  i)icture  on  page  162.) 

Li';oxARi)  J.  NiCKERSOx  of  West  Cornwall  was  born  in  that  town 
October  23,  1857.  He  graduated  from  the  Alger  Academy  and 
studied  law  with  Hon.  Arthur  D.  \\'arner,  being-  admitted  to  this 
];ar  in  187c).  In  1883  he  represented  Cornwall  in  the  General  As- 
sembly, and  has  been  very  active  in  town  aiTairs.  He  has  an  ex- 
tensive practice  throughout  the  State.     Picture,  page  162. 

AIajor  a.  Nickersox,  a  native  of  Cornwall,  admitted  to  this  Bar 
in  1834.  After  a  brief  practice,  mostly  in  Berlin,  Connecticut,  he 
removed  to  New  York  State  and  entered  the  ^linistry. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTKS 


269 


Major  A.  NickERSOx.  born  in  Cornwall  and  admitted  to  this 
Bar  in  1868.  For  some  years,  owing-  to  poor  health  he  did  not 
practice,  but  about  1888  opened  a  law  office  in  I'lainville.  Conn. 
Died  suddenly  in  his  office,  April  25,  1891. 

MiKKKL  Neilsox,  a  native  of  Denmark,  studied  law  in  Litchfield 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1881,  and  removed  West. 

Charles  Xettletox  w^as 
'  born  in  Washington.  Conn. 
October  2,  1819,  and  after 
studying-  law  at  Litchfield 
was  admitted  to  the  Bar. 
He  opened  an  office  in 
Xaugatuck  and  was  for  a 
time  in  New  Haven,  but 
not  meeting-  with  satis  fac- 
tor v  clientage  he  removed 
to  the  city  of  Xew  York 
and    made    a    specialty    of 


::.il 


Nettleton's  librarv. 


convevancmg  and  for  some 
years  was  a  pension  attor- 
ney. He  was  a  great  col- 
lector of  the  session  laws 
of  all  the  difl^erent  States 
and  it  was  claimed  that  he 
had  the  largest  and  fullest 
library  in  this  line  in  the 
country.  For  the  help  of 
the  Tiiden-Hayes  Electoral 
Commission,  the  Library  of 
Congress  moved  to  Wash- 
inton  all  this  part  of  Mr. 
He  died  in  Xew  York  Alay  5,  1892. 

Theodore  Xorth.  born  in  Goshen  March  2,  1780.  Graduated 
from  Williams  College  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1809.  Mem- 
ber of  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1818.  Removed  to  Elmira 
N.  Y.  in  1823.     Died  April  21,  1842. 

Jonathan  T.  Norton  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1847  ^^'^^ 
practiced  a  short  time  in  West  Cornwall,  when  he  removed  to 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

James  H.  Nortox,  born  in  Goshen  in  1823,  admitted  to  this  Bar 
in  1846  and  soon  removed  to  Pennsylvania.  Entered  the  field  of 
journalism  and  was  connected  with  the  Xew  York  City  daily  papers. 
Resided  at  Middletown.  X.  Y.     Died  in  1894. 

William  H.  O'Hara,  born  in  Washington  October  15.  1859 
and  was  educated  at  the  ■'Gunnerv"  :  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1880. 


2/0  LITCIIFIKLD  COUXTV  BKXClt  AXD  DAR 

Practiced  in  lirido-eport.  In  1893-4  was  an  Alderman  in  Bridge- 
port and  the  latter  year  president  of  the  Board  and  Acting-  Mayor. 
In  1902  removed  his  office  to  New  York  Citv. 

James  L.  Orr,  born  in  Hudson.  X.  V..  studied  with  Hon.  John 
H.  Hubbard,  was  admitted  to  the  Ijar  in  1845.  He  practiced  at 
Sharon  and  then  removed  to  ^lichig'an.  His  health  failing-  him  he 
returned  to  Salisbury,  where  he  died. 

Samuel  D.  Ortox,  born  in  Bridgewater.  Admitted  to  the  Bar 
in  1830.     Practiced  a  number  of  years  in  New  Milford. 

EuGEXE  O'Sl'LUVax  practices  law  in  Torrington. 

Charles  A.  PAL:\rER.  born  in  Goshen  in  1859,  graduated  from 
Williams  Colleg'e.  Admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1885.  Practiced  a  few 
years  at  Sharon  and  then  removed  to  Torrington.  Now  resides  in 
Goshen,  and  is  not  in  the  practice  of  law. 

Joseph  M.  Pal:^[ER,  born  in  New  Milford  in  1788.  Was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Fairfield  County  Bar,  but  located  at  Woodbury,  where 
he  practiced  until  181 6,  when  he  removed  to  Fredericktown,  Md. 
He  was  a  Judge  of  one  of  the  higher  courts  in  that  State. 

SoLOMOx  M.  PAL:\rER  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  181 1. 

Jox^^ATHAX  Edward  PAR:\rALEY,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1790,  re- 
sided and  practiced  in  Bethlehem. 

David  PARirALEE.  a  lawyer  in  Litchfield,  1797.  (Connecticut 
Register.) 

CoL.  A:\rASA  Parker,  born  in  1784  in  the  limits  of  the  present 
town  of  Washington.  Graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1808.  At- 
tended the  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
1810.     He  removed  to  Delhi,  Deleware  County,  N.  Y. 

Axsox-  V.  Parsoxs,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1826. 

Daxiel  Parsoxs,  adiuitted  to  the  B)ar  in  1847  from  Sharon. 

W'alter  AI.  Pattersox,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  i860,  practiced 
a  short  time  in  Sharon. 

Calvix  Pease,  a  lawyer  in  New  Hartford,  1799.  (Connecticut 
Register.) 

Willia:m  K.  Peck,  Jr.,  born  in  Harwinton  and  admitted  to  the 
Bar  in  1847  from  Norfolk.  He  located  in  Norfolk  and  removed  to 
Winsted  in  1864.  He  removed  from  Winsted  to  IMichigan  in  1869, 
and  died  at  Grand  Rapids,  Mich,  in  1870.  The  following  paragraph 
is  from  a  highly  complimentary  notice  of  the  stump  labors  of  Wm. 
K.  Peck,  Esq.  which  we  find  in  the  JVcstcrji  New  Yorker  pulilished 
at  Warsaw,  November,  1867: 

"The  series  of  meetings  held  in  this  county  l)y  W.  K.  Peck,  Esq., 
of  Connecticut,  have  been  among  the  most  successful  and  satisfac- 
tory ever  known  here.     The  appointment  for  the  Court  House  on 


BIOGRAPHICAI,  XOTES  271 

Saturday  evening'  drew  together  an  audience  that  packed  the  room 
full.  Air.  Peck  is  a  man  of  fine  presence  and  genial  manners  with 
a  remarkably  g'ood  voice  and  excellent  qualities  as  a  popular  speak- 
er. For  perfect  candor  and  fairness,  for  strong  points  sharply  put, 
for  earnestness  and  agreeable  humor,  and  to  sum  it  all  up — for  a 
good  effect  in  a  political  speech,  Mr.  Peck  ranks  with  the  best  men 
on  the  stump.     A\'e  hope  to  have  him  here  again." 

Nathaniel  Perry  was  a  native  of  Woodbury  and  was  admitted 
to  the  Fairfield  County  Bar  in  18 16.  He  beg'an  practice  in  Wood- 
bury, removing  to  Xew  Alilford  in  1823.  He  died  in  Kent  in  1849, 
aged  60  years. 

George  W.  Peet  was  born  in  Salisbury  in  1828  and  after  ad- 
mission to  the  Bar  he  practiced  in  Canaan.  The  latter  part  of  his 
life  was  devoted  chiefly  to  financial  operations.  He  was  president 
of  the  Iron  Bank  of  Falls  A'illage,  etc.  He  died  at  North  Canaan 
in  1882. 

HuCTi  F.  Peters,  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1849;  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1851. 

JoFix  Tiro:\rpsoNr  Peters,  graduated  at  Yale  College,  1789:  ad- 
mitted to  the  Bar  in  1791.  Was  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  from 
1818  to  1834.  Died  August  28,  1834.  Resided  at  Hartford.  (See 
Sedgwick's  "Fifty  Years.") 

JoEE  T.  Pettet,  admitted  to  the  I'ar  in  1801  from  Sharon.  He 
was  a  young  man  of  great  |)n)niise.  but  died  of  consumi^tion,  Septem- 
ber 13,  1807,  aged  T,2. 

Al"GL'STus  Petti r.oxi;.  born  in  Norfolk  February  19,  1766,  a  son 
of  Col.  Giles  Pettibonc.  Attended  the  Litchfield  Law  School  and 
was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1790.  He  settled  in  Norfolk,  w^as  a 
member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1818  and  Judge  and 
Chief  Judge  of  the  County  Court  from  1812  to  183 1  He  died 
October  4,  1847.      (  See  Sedgwick's  "Fifty  Years.") 

CoE.  Giles  Pettip.oxe,  born  in  Simsbury  December  9,  1735.  His 
name  appears  as  an  attorney  in  the  early  records  of  the  County 
Court.     Resided  in  Norfolk  and  died  there  Alarch  17,  1810. 

SamuEi,  Pettthoxe.  the  first  King's  Attorney  of  Litchfield 
County  was  born  in  Simslnu'y  Jul\'  26,  1798.  He  began  to  practice 
law  as  early  as  1730.  He  removed  to  Goshen  prior  to  1740  and  was 
active  in  the  formation  of  the  County  in  175 1.  Upon  the  establish- 
ment of  the  County  C(nu't  he  was  appointed  King's,  or  as  we  now 
term  it.  State  Attorney,  which  office  he  held  several  years.  He  was 
prominent  in  the  town  aft'airs  of  early  Goshen  and  represented  the 
town  in  the  General  Assembly  a  number  of  times.     He  died  in  1787. 

SerExo  Pettitoxe  was  a  brother  of  Augustus  Pettibone  and 
born  in  Norfolk  November  9th,   1778;  graduated  at  Williams  Col- 


272 


LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BlvXCII  AND  I5AR 


lege  in  1800.  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1803.  He  practiced 
a  few  years  at  Xorfolk,  and  died  there.  November  i6th,  1826,  "just 
in  the  prime  of  Hfe,  a  man  of  fine  abihty  and  promise." 


JOHN  piiiRi'ONT,  185 1. 

John  PiRRroNT,  born  in  Litchfield  April  6,  1785.  Graduated  at 
Yale  Colle$:^e  in  1804.  Studied  law  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School 
and  was  admitted  to  this  15ar  in  1810.  He  removed  to  Newbury- 
port,  Alass.,  where  after  a  short  practice  of  law  he  became  an  Uni- 
tarian Minister.  He  edited  a  large  number  of  school  books ;  the 
old  fashioned  National  Precepter,  being  perhaps  the  best  known 
of  them.  He  was  also  a  poet,  and  his  "Stand,  the  ground's  your  own 
my  braves !  "  has  been  the  standard  for  boyhood  declamations,  dur- 
ing the  last  three-quarters  of  a  century.  His  poem  delivered  at  our 
Centennial  celebration  in  1851,  has  also  become  classical.  In  his 
earlier  years  he,  like  many  of  the  Boston  celebreties,  was  not  fas- 
tedious  in  his  dress,  and  the  portrait  we  publish  of  him  is  said  by  all 
our  old  men  to  be  a  characteristic  one.  The  second,  near  the  close 
of  this  book,  looks  as  he  did  in  later  life,  when  he  held  a  clerical 
position  in  one  of  the  Government  departments  in  Washington.  He 
was  the  ancestor  of  John  Pierpont  Morgan,  the  noted  banker  and 
financier.     Mr.  Pierpont  died  at  ^Nledford,  Mass.,  August  27,  1866. 


lUOGRAPTTICAI,  XOTES  2"]}^ 

Charles  B.  Phelps  was  born  in  Chatham,  now  Portland.  Con- 
necticut in  1/88  and  pursued  his  professional  studies  under  Judge 
Reeve  and  Xoah  B.  Benedict.  Esq.,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
September.  1809.  Entered  into  practice  at  Woodbury,  and  there 
continued  the  exercise  of  his  profession  to  the  time  of  his  death. 
December  21.  1858.  He  was  Judge  of  Probate  for  nearly  thirty 
years  and  was  an  authority  on  Probate  Law.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  in  1831.  1837.  and  1852  in  which  latter 
vear  he  was  elected  its  Speaker.  In  1843  l""^  ^^"^"^  elected  to  the  Sen- 
ate and  was  its  President  pro  tem.  In  1850  he  was  elected  Judge 
of  the  County  Court,  holding  the  office  three  years.  In  ^Nfr.  Coth- 
ren's  history  of  Woodbury,  will  be  found  a  lengthy  biography  of  this 
honest  lawyer.     Picture,  page  94. 

Ralph  P.  Phelps,  attorney  in  Winchester.  1832.  (Connecticut 
Register.) 

E.  Frispje  Phelps,  graduated  from  Yale  Law  School,  and  was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  from  Harwinton  in  1866.  He  soon  removed 
from  the  State.     Is  now  in  Xew  York  City  in  the  insurance  business. 

Elisha  Phelps,  born  in  Simslnu-y.  Graduated  from  Yale  Col- 
lege in  1800;  attended  the  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1802.     Settled  in  his  native  town,  where  he  died  m 

1847. 

A:\ros  Pierce  (Pearce),  graduated  at  Yale.  1783.  Died  in 
Woodbury,  1798. 

James  Pierce  was  admitted  by  the  County  Court  in  1799. 

JoHX  PiTCLiER  was  admitted  by  the  County  Court  in  181 6.  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of  Xew  York. 

John  Pierpont,  born  in  Litchfield  September  10.  1805;  mem- 
ber of  the  Law  School;  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1826.  He  removed 
to  Vergennes.  \'ermont.  \\'as  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  and 
lield  other  important  offices  in  that  State. 

Orvh.le  Hitchcock  Platt  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1850. 
He  was  born  in  Washington.  Conn.,  and  his  early  life  was  that  of  a 
hard  working  farmer  boy.  Both  parents  being  of  good  Xew  Eng- 
land stock,  earnest  in  religion,  patriotic,  and  having  the  courage  of 
their  convictions,  he  inherited  that  breadth  of  mind  and  strength  of 
character  for  which  he  became  so  prominent.  Beginning  in  the  old 
red  school  house,  and  afterward  attending  the  Academy,  in  which 
he  later  on  taught,  he  was  still  further  furnished,  by  close  and  per- 
sistent study  at  home.  Having  chosen  the  law  as  his  profession  he 
entered  the  office  of  Gideon  Hollister  and  Fred.  Beeman  in  Litch- 
field in  1848  and  in  due  time  was  admitted  to  this  Bar.  He  began 
his  practice  at  Towanda,  Penn..  but  in  a  short  time  returned  to 
Connecticut  and  settled  at  Meriden,  where  he  soon  became  a  prom- 


274  I.ITCHI-IKLI)  COLXTV  lU.XClI  AND  BAR 

inent  attorney  and  citizen.  In  1855  he  was  Clerk  of  the  Connecti- 
cut Senate  and  in  1857  was  Secretary  of  State.  He  was  repeatedly 
elected  to  represent  his  town  in  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State, 
serving"  in  the  Senate  in  1861-2,  and  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  1864  and  1869  and  was  given  important  positions  in  the  deliber- 
ations of  those  bodies.  In  1877  he  was  appointed  State  x^ttorney 
for  New  Haven  County.  In  1879  he  was  chosen  United  States 
Senator  by  the  General  Assembly,  a  position  which  he  occupied 
continuously  until  his  death  at  his  summer  residence  at  Washington, 
Connecticut,  April  21,  1905. 

In  an  address  delivered  Ijy  him  to  his  townsmen  just  before  start- 
ing- for  Washington  to  take  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  he  said,  "Just 
now  everything  is  new  and  seems  unreal.  I  can  scarcely  appreciate 
the  future ;  how  I  shall  walk  in  the  new  part  in  which  I  am  set, 
time  will  show.  I  do  know  that  I  shall  trv  to  do  right  as  I  see  the 
rig-ht." 

He  took  his  seat  Alarch  18,  1879,  and  for  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  gave  his  best  thought  and  untiring  industry  to  all 
matters  of  legislation  and  gradually  won  his  own  place  in  the  front 
rank. 

He  served  eighteen  years  on  the  committee  of  patents,  eight  of 
those  years  as  chairman.  He  was  regarded  by  all,  as  the  best  au- 
thority on  patent  law  in  the  Senate.  For  sixteen  years  he  was  a 
member  of  the  committee  on  Indian  affairs,  and  no  one  was  more 
alive  than  he  to  the  true  welfare  of  the  Indians.  Xo  man  in  of- 
ficial life  was  ever  a  more  practical  and  useful  friend  of  these 
wards  of  the  nation. 

For  twelve  years  he  was  a  meml)cr  of  the  committee  on  Territories, 
six  years  as  chairman,  and  while  such  chairman  six  states  were  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union,  viz :  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota,  Montana, 
Washington,  Idaho  and  Wyohiing. 

For  ten  years  and  up  to  ^the  time  of  his  death,  he  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  on  finance.  For  four  years  he  was  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  Cuban  Relations,  and  was  the  author  and 
father  of  the  noted  Piatt  .Amendment — that  great  bulwark  and 
mainstay  of  the  Cuban  Republic  against  foes,  foreign  and  domestic. 
In  the  investigation  of  this  subject  he  accumulated  a  large  and  ex- 
haustive library  relating  to  Cuban  and  Philippine  matters,  probably 
the  largest  in  the  country,  which  has  been  given  by  his  heirs  to  the 
State  Library  at  Plartford,  C(^nn. 

He  was  for  twelve  years  a  leading  member  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  chairman  of  that  com- 
mittee. On  this  great  committee,  on  account  of  his  skill  and  learn- 
ing as  a  lawyer,  and  his  industrious  prudence  and  conservative 
character,  he  was  one  of  the  most  active,  useful  and  sate  members, 
favorable  to  all  reasonable  innovations,  l)ut  strongly  set  against 
revolutionary  or  doubtful  schemes  or  measures.  No  man  in  the 
Republican   partv   was   oftencr   consulted   hv  both    Presidents,    Mc- 


UKVir.Ll-;   IJITCIROCK   I'LATT 


BIOGRAPHICAI^  NOTES  275 

Kinley  and  Roosevelt  upon  vital  questions,  not  only  of  party  policy, 
but  of  material  and  international  importance.  The  last  great 
service  he  rendered,  was  in  presiding  over  the  Senate  as  a  Court 
of  ImpeachmeiTi;  in  the  case  of  Judge  Swain.  The  care,  dignity  and 
impartiality  with  which  he  performed  that  difficult  task  proved  him 
to  be  a  master  mind  in  that  eminent  body. 

Senator  Teller  of  Colorado  said  of  him :  "He  was  a  party  man 
with  a  strong  partisan  spirit,  because  he  believed  his  party  was  best 
calculated  to  secure  the  highest  degree  of  progress  and  prosperity 
it  was  possible  for  a  nation  to  attain.  While  he  was  a  partisan 
and  defended  the  principles  of  his  party  with  intelligence  and  vigor, 
he  recognized  that  there  were  two  political  parties  in  the  country, 
and  that  there  might  be  wisdom  and  patriotism  in  those  differing 
with  him.  He  was  a  good  type  of  Americanism,  and  his  aspiration 
for  his  country  was  for  all  parts  and  all  the  people  within  its 
borders." 

Probably  the  obsequies  of  no  eminent  man  of  Litchfieltl  County 
were  ever  attended  by  so  many  distinguished  public  men  as  were 
his  when  he  was  laid  to  rest  amid  the  scenes  he  loved  so  well  on 
April  24th,  1905,  in  the  cemetery  at  Washington,  Connecticut. 

Henry  B.  Plumb,  a  native  of  Wolcott,  Conn.,  born  in  1857, 
was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1879.  He  has  never  practiced  law— 
but  is  Secretary  of  the  Eagle  Lock  Company  of  Terryville,  with 
office  in  Xew  York  citv.  and  resides  in  Terryville. 

E.  LeRoy  Pond,  born  in  Terryville,  Town  of  Plymouth,  Dec. 
26,  1883.  Graduated  at  Yale  College  1904,  and  from  the  Law 
School  in  1906.  Admitted  to  this  Bar  February,  1907,  and  opened 
an  office  in  Terryville. 

Charles  J.  Porter,  born  in  Goshen.  January  2^,  1839;  was 
sheriiT  from  188 1  to  1884.  He  was  in  the  Civil  War  for  three  years 
in  the  First  Connecticut  Heavy  Artillery  in  which  he  was  a  Quarter- 
master Sergeant.  He  resided  in  Goshen  Center  where  he  was  Post 
Master  and  carried  on  a  large  general  store  business.  He  repre- 
sented his  town  in  the  Legislature  in  1866  and  1893.  He  died 
Dec.  19.  1907.      (See  picture,  page  160). 

Peter  B.  Porter,  born  in  Salisbury.  Graduated  from  Yale 
College  in  1791,  admittd  to  this  Bar  in  1793.  Removed  to  the  State 
of  New  York  and  died  at  his  home  at  Niagara  Falls  in  1844.  He 
was  in  Congress  in  1810  and  was  Secretary  of  \\'ar  under  John 
Q.  Adams"  administration. 

Joel  B.  Potter,  admitted  in  1803  from  Sherman.  He  died 
October  7,  1806. 

Nathan  Preston,  born  in  \\'oodbury  in  1758.     Graduated  from 

Yale  College  in   1776.     He  served  in  the  Continental  Army  until 

1780.        In    1782   he   was   admitted   to  the   Bar   and   settled   in   his 

native  town  having  a   large  practice  and  enjoying  many  political 

lionors  until  his  decease  in  September,  1822. 


2/0  LITCIIFIKLD  COUXTY  BKXCII  AND  BAR 

\\'ir.i.iAM  PrEstox.  He  was  born  in  Stratford  in  1676,  bnt 
when  quite  young-  removed  with  his  father's  family  to  Woodbury. 
He  became  a  leading'  man  in  the  town  and  colony.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  General  Court  thirty-five  sessions,  and  stood  high  in  the 
militia,  having  attained  the  rank  of  Colonel.  He  was  justice  of 
the  quorum  eleven  years  from  1740.  On  the.  formation  of  Litch- 
field County  in  1 751,  he  was  apj^iointed  its  first  judge,  which  office 
he  held  till  his  death  in  1754.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  talents  and 
commanding-  influence — of  sterling-  integ'rity  and  unflinching  de- 
termination. 

In  another  place  will  be  seen  a  cut  of  his  tombstone  in  fine  pres- 
ervation in  the  cemetery  at  Woodbury. 

W^iijjAM  L.  Rax"So:m  was  born  in  Granville.  ]\Iass.,  Alarch  28, 
1822.  He  studied  law  with  Judge  Hiram  Goodwin  of  Riverton 
and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1854.  Three  years  later  he  came 
to  Litchfield  and  associated  with  Hon.  John  H.  Hubbard  in  the 
practice  of  his  profession  until  1859,  when  he  was  appointed  Clerk 
of  Superior  and  Supreme  Courts  for  Litchfield  County  from  which 
position  he  resigned  in  1887  after  an  honorable  service  of  twenty- 
nine  years.     He  now  resides  in  Litchfield. 

From  the  history  of  the  Ransom  family  I  quote  the  following 
well  deserved  tribute  :  "William  L.  Ransom  was  tendered  the  posi- 
tion of  Clerk  of  the  Superior  Court  and  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Errors  which  his  experience  and  methotlical  habits  enfinently  quali- 
fied him  to  fill.  He  accepted  the  appointment  and  for  twenty-eight 
years  he  continued  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  oflice  with  honor 
to  himself  an.l  the  tribunal  of  which  he  was  a  trusted  official. 
Patience  and  courtesy  secured  for  him  the  well  grounded  regard  of 
the  clientage  that  had  'their  day  in  court"  and  Bench  and  Bar  alike 
held  him  in  the  highest  esteem."' 

TiMOTiiv  C.  Rvxso.Ar  was  a  brother  of  William  L.  and  born 
September  22,  1824,  and  w^as  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1858.  He 
practiced  a  few  years  in  ^Meriden,  Conn.,  and  then  removed  to  North 
Dakota  where  he  died. 

D.wiD  R.WMOXD  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1812  from  jMontville, 
Connecticut. 

Jamks  Ravmoxd  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1834  from  Canaan. 

JoTTX  Rkkd.  This  gentleman  was  undoubtedly  the  earliest  at- 
torney in  the  territory  embraced  in  Litchfield  County.  He  grad- 
uated at  Cambridge  in  1697  and  entered  the  niinistry  and  preached 
at  Waterbury,  Stratford  and  other  places.  He  became  interested 
in  the  Stratford  colony  of  settlers  who  went  to  the  region  now  called 
New  Alilford,  and  obtained  a  large  tract  of  land  now  the  center  of 
that  town,  and  built  a  residence  near  the  present  Ingleside  School, 
where  he  resided  and  held  religious  services  in  his  house.     In  1708, 


THOMAS   1".    RYAN" 


BIOGRAPIIICAI,  XOTES  2// 

while  living-  there,  he  was  admitted  as  an  attorney  by  the  General 
Court  and  in  171 2  he  was  appointed  Queen's  Attorney  for  the 
Colony.  Mr.  Reed  had  plenty  business  of  his  own  to  attend  to,  for 
the  ]\Iilford  settlers  claimino-  a  superior  title  to  the  Xew  Milford 
lands,  over  the  Stratford  title,  occupied  some  of  the  26.000  acres, 
and  ]Mr.  Reed  sued  them  for  trespass,  and  after  sixteen  trials, 
fifteen  of  which  he  won  ami  lost  the  sixteenth,  became  discouraged 
and  gave  up  the  effort,  and  removed  to  a  large  tract  of  land  he 
obtained  in  the  present  town  of  Redding  where  he  resided  initil 
1722,  when  he  went  to  Boston,  and  soon  became  the  most  eminent 
lawyer  in  the  Colonies.  He  was  Attorney  General  for  several 
years  and  also  a  member  of  the  Governor  and  Council.  He  was 
known  there  as  "Leather  Jacket  John."  ^Nlany  anecdotes  are  told 
of  this  eccentric  attorne_\-  which  this  compilation  does  not  care  to 
repeat.  Knapp's  Biographical  Sketches  says  of  him :  "One  act 
alone  should  give  him  immortality.  He.  from  his  own  high  re- 
sponsibility reduced  the  quaint,  redundant  and  obscure  phraseology 
of  the  English  deeds  of  conveyance,  to  the  present  short,  clear  and 
simple  form  now  in  use.  His  influence  and  authority  must  have 
been  great  as  a  law\er.  to  have  brought  these  retrenched  forms  into 
general  use.  The  declarations  which  he  made  and  used  in  civil 
actions,  have,  many  of  them,  come  down  to  us  as  precedents,  and 
are  among  the  finest  S])eciiuens  of  special  pleading  that  can  be 
found.  Story  has  preserved  some  of  his  forms,  and  Parsons  says 
that  "many  other  lawyers  had  assumed  his  work  as  a  special  pleader 
as  their  own ;  and  that  honors  due  him  had  by  carelessness  or  ac- 
cident, been  given  to  others,  who  had  only  copied  his  forms." 

He  married  Ruth  Talcott.  daughter  of  Col.  John  Talcott  of 
Hartford  and  sister  of  Governor  Joseph  Talcott.  One  of  his  sons 
was  the  celebrated  Col.  John  Reed  of  the  "Lonetown  ^Eanor," 
Redtling,  Connecticut.     He  died  in  1749,  leaving  a  large  estate. 

Joiix  G.  Reid  was  a  son  of  Rev.  Adam  Reid  of  Salisbury  and 
was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1857  and  located  at  Kent.  He  did 
honorable  service  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  and  afterwards 
removed  to  Chicago. 

Aarox  B.  Rehvi;  was  a  son  of  Hon.  Tapping  Reeve,  graduated 
from  Yale  in  1802,  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1808,  began  practice 
in  Troy.  Xew  York,  where  he  died  in  1809. 

Tapping  Reeve,  born  in  Southhold.  Long  Island,  October,  1744. 
Graduated  from  the  College  of  X'ew  Jersey  in  1763.  In  1784  he 
opened  the  Law  School  at  Litchfield  which  continued  until  1833. 
In  1798  he  was  appointed  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  and  in  1814 
he  became  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  State.  He  died  at  Litchfield, 
December  13,  1823.  See  Boardman's  "Early  Lights,"  Law  School, 
etc. 


278  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  BLNCII  AND  BAR 

James  Richards  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1862.  He  then  re- 
sided at  Litchfield  where  he  had  been  preaching  for  some  years.  He 
afterwards  removed  to  Charleston,  W.  A^a.,  where  he  died. 

Francis  X.  Ricii:mond  was  born  in  New  Milford,  admitted  to 
the  Litchfield  Bar  in  1897,  and  practiced  for  a  short  time  in  Water- 
burv.  He  removed  to  Xew^  ^Milford,  and  later  returned  to  Water- 
l)ury,  where  he  died  in  1906. 

Edward  Richmond,  admitted  in  18 15  from  Washington. 

Clark  Riciiter,  graduated  from  Yale  in  1856,  admitted  in  1861 
from  Salisbury. 

William  H.  Rood,  admitted  in  1845.  Practiced  in  Winsted,  was 
a  Judge  of  Probate  there,  removed  to  Lynn,  Mass.,  where  he  died. 

Edward  Rockwell,  born  in  Colebrook  June  30th  1801.  Gradu- 
ated at  Yale  College  1821.  Admittetl  to  this  Bar  in  1827  as  from 
Sharon.  He  located  in  Youngstown,  Ohio.  Was  the  Secretary  of 
the  Cleveland  and  Pittsburg  Railroad  Company  until  1867.  when 
he  resigned  that  office  and  removed  to  Xew  York  City,  where  he 
died  in  1874. 

Ju-Lius  Rockwell  was  born  in  (  olebrook,  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1826,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1829  and  located  at  Pits- 
field,  Mass.  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  and  also  a  Judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts. 

The  following  extract  shows  the  proceedings  taken  by  the  Berk- 
sire  County  Bar  upon  the  death  of  Judge  Rockwell  in  1888: 

"The  Superior  Court  opened  here  this  morning.  Chief  Justice 
Brighan.i  presided  at  a  memorial  meeting  of  the  Berkshire  Bar  in 
honor  of  the  late  Judge  Julius  Rockwell.  There  was  a  large  at- 
tendance of  lawyers,  prominent  citizens  of  the  county  and  ladies. 
Attorney  General  \\'atcrman  offered  resolutions  adopted  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Bar  yesterday,  gave  a  short  sketch  of  Judge  Rockwell's 
career  and  moved  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions.  Judge  Tucker 
seconded  the  resolutions,  and  speeches  were  also  made  by  the  Hon. 
Marshall  Wilcox,  T.  P.  Pingree,  Senator  Dawes  and  Judge  Brig- 
hauL  The  resolutions  were  ordered  spread  on  the  records  of  the 
court  and  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  Judge  RcKkwell's  memory  the 
court  adjourned  until  to-morrow  morning."' 

William  Rock  welt,  was  born  in  Sharon  in  1804.  Graduated 
at  Yale  College  in  1822,  and  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1824.  Located 
in  Brooklyn.  X.  Y.  \\as  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  King's 
County. 

Alberto  1.  Rorap.ack  was  born  in  Sheffield,  IMass.  in  1849. 
Acquiring  a  good  academic  education;  in  1872  began  the  study  of 
law  with  Judge  Donald  J.  Warner  in  Salisbury  and  was  admitted  to 
this   Bar  "in    1872.     He   located   at   Xorth   Canaan   and   was    for   a 


«^^  -j 


D.WID    C.    SAX  FORD 


BIOGRAPIIICAI,  XOTES  2/9 

quarter  of  a  century  a  leader  of  the  affairs  of  north  western  Con- 
necticut. From  1889  to  1893  he  was  the  Judge  of  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas  for  Litchfield  County.  In  1895  and  1896  he  repre- 
sented his  town  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  in  1897  was  appointed 
a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court.  He  was  in  1907  promoted  by  the 
Legislature  to  be  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors  to  take 
effect  in  September.  1908.     His  picture  is  shown  on  page  133. 

J.  Clixtux  R().\r]!ack^  a  son  of  Judge  A.  T.  Roarback  was  born 
in  North  Canaan.  Graduated  at  Yale  University  and  at  the  Yale 
Law  School.  Was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1905.  He  resides  and 
practices  in  Xorth  Canaan. 

J.  HivXRY  RoARiJACK  was  born  in  Sheffield.  Alass.  in  1870,  and 
admitted  to  practice  in  1892  at  this  IJar.  He  located  at  Xorth 
Canaan  in  company  with  his  brother  Judge  A.  T.  Roarback  to  whose 
law  business  he  suceeded  upon  the  latter's  elevation  to  the  bench  in 
1897.  He  has  been  a  very  active  politician,  holding  the  position 
of  a  member  of  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee  for  several 
years.  Is  the  Postmaster  at  Xorth  Canaan.  He  is  also  extensive- 
ly engaged  in  the  lime  business  of  that  region. 

Wii.i.ARi)  A.  RoRABACK  was  boru  in  X'ew  Marlboro.  ]\Iass.  ^larcli 
I2th.  i860  and  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1883.  Locating  in  Torring- 
ton,  he  has  held  many  of  the  town  offices,  representing  the  town  in 
the  Legislature  of  1895.  Has  been  Judge  of  the  Borough  Court, 
and  is  now  Judge  of  the  Probate  Court  of  that  District. 

Elbert  P.  Roberts  was  born  in  IJtchtield  in  1863  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1884.  Resides  and  practices  in  Litchfield.  He 
has  a  large  real  estate  business,  and  has  for  many  years  been  the 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Litchfield. 

W'li.i.i A:yr  J.  Roberts  was  born  in  Xcw  Milford  and  graduated  in 
Yale  College  in  1859.  During  the  \\'ar  of  the  Rebellion  he  was  a 
Captain  of  Company  I,  Eighth  Regiment  of  Connecticut  A'olunteers. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1866,  and  died  in  Xew  ]\Iilford,  June 
30,  1870. 

\\'ii.i.iA.>[  R.  Ror.ERS.  of  Georgia,  a  graduate  of  the  Litchfield 
Law  ScliDol,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  183 1. 

SA:\n-Er.  Rowland,  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1794.  resided  in  Fair- 
field, Conn,  and  died  there  in  1837. 

PiiiLO  RugglES  was  born  in  X'^ew  ^lilford  in  1765  and  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1791.  Began  practice  in  Xew  Mil  ford  and  then  re- 
moved to  Poughkeepsie,  and  afterwards  to  X"ew  York  Cit}'  where 
he  died  in  1829. 

Joiix  H.  Russell,  a  native  of  Canaan,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1849  ^"<^l  settled  in  Salisbury.  He  devoted  most  of  his  time  to 
fanuing.     He  died  at  Lakeville  in   187 1. 


28o  I.ITCIII-IKLD  CUU-NTV  liK-XCli  AND  BAR 

Joseph  Ryax,  admitted  to  practice  in  1858  from  Norfolk,  went 
to  Illinois. 

Timothy  Rvax,  admitted  in  1861  from  Xorfolk.  Located  in 
Illinois. 

Thomas  F.  Ryax  was  born  in  Ireland.  March  6,  1872.  He  was 
educated  at  St.  Mary's  College,  Troy,  X.  V.  and  graduated  from 
Yale  Law  School  in  1897,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar.  He  be- 
gan to  practice  at  Torrington,  but  soon  went  to  Tucson,  Arizona, 
where  he  combined  law  and  mining.  He  returned  to  Connecticut 
in  1901  and  located  in  Litchfield  in  1905. 

Da\ii)  C.  Sanford,  born  in  Xew  Milford  in  1798,  was  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  Fairfield  County  in  1820.  He  removed  to  Litchfield, 
\vhere  he  practiced  till  1832,  when  he  went  to  Xorwalk,  but  soon 
returned  to  New  Milford,  where  he  resided  at  the  time  of  his  death 
in  1864.  In  1854  he  was  elected  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court, 
which  office  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  decease. 

George  A.  Sanford,  born  in  Simsbury,  1852;  educated  at  L^nion 
College,  was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  County  Bar  in  1903.  He 
resides  and  practices  at  Winsted.  Is  an  active  member  of  the 
School  Boarcl  of  \\' inchester. 

Roujx  SaxFord  was  born  in  Cornwall,  \'t.  of  Litchfield,  Conn, 
ancestry.  Graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1831  and  was  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1833.  He  abandoned  the  legal  profession  and  en- 
gaged in  the  mercantile  business  in  Xcw  York  City,  where  he  died. 
December  2,  1879. 

Hexry  Seymour  Sax  ford  died  at  his  home  in  X'ew  ]\Iilford  on 
Saturday  Xovember  2,  1901  at  the  age  of  69  years.  He  was  the 
son  of  the  late  Judge  David  C.  Sanfor J  and  of  Amelia  S.  {  Seymour) 
Sanford,  a  member  of  the  distinguished  Seymour  family  of  Litch- 
field. He  was  born  in  Norwalk,  Conn.,  March  i,  1832.  He  en- 
tered Yale  College  in  1848  and  graduated  in  the  class  of  1852.  He 
■  tlien  took  the  two  years'  course  at  the  Harvard  Law  School.  After 
his  admission  to  the  Bar  he  spent  one  year  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
as  private  Secretary  for  Ex-Judge  Seymour,  then  a  member  of  Con- 
gress. Returning  to  .\ew  Milford,  he  became  associated  with  his 
father  in  his  well  established  law  ])ractice,  and  when  his  father  was 
elevated  to  the  supreme  bench,  the  son  carried  on  the  practice  with 
ability. 

At  the  age  of  29  years  he  met  witli  a  serious  accident  that  dis- 
abled him  ])hysically  for  life,  placing  him  at  a  great  disadvantage 
when  in  the  full  strength  of  youth  he  was  entering  upon  an  un- 
usually promising-  career.  But  with  remarkable  pluck  and  bravery 
lie  rose  superior  to  a  misfortune  which  would  have  discouraged  an 
ordinary  man  from  attem]:)ting  to  do  anything  noteworthy,  and  for 
many  years  with   rare  perseverance  and  i)atience  successfull\'   pur- 


HEXRY  SEYilOL'R  SAXFORD 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES 


281 


sued  his  chosen  caUing,  altliough  unal^le  to  go  about  except  in  a 
wheel-chair,  and  what  was  more  remarkable  still,  he  retained  his 
naturally  high  spirits  and  genial  disposition. 

Mr.  Sanford  moved  to  Bridgeport  in  1869  and  was  a  well  known 
attorney  there  for  thirty  years.  He  w-as  at  one  time  the  leading 
lawyer  of  the  Fairfield  county  15ar,  and  he  was  associated  with  or 
opposed  to  the  foremost  lawyers  of  his  city  and  state  in  many  im- 
portant cases,  a  number  of  which  came  before  the  Supreme  Court. 
He  was  aggressive,  al:)le  and  brilliant  as  a  lawyer  and  liked  nothing 
better  than  to  cross  swords  with  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel. 

One  of  the  last  and  most  gracious  acts  of  Mr.  Sanford's  life  was 
to  donate  the  rare  and  valuable  collection  of  law  books  which  had 
belonged  to  him  and  his  distinguished  father  to  the  law  library  in 
New  ]\lilford  for  the  use  of  the  members  of  the  Litchfield  County 
Bar  which  the  two  Sanfords,  father  and  son,  had  both  honorably 
and  al)ly  represented. 

Henry  S.  SaxFord,  a  son  of  Henry  Seymour  Sanford,  was  l)orn 
in  Bridgeport  August  5,  1873.  Graduated  from  Yale  Law  School 
in  1895.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Xew  Haven  Bar  in  the  same 
year,  and  admitted  to  the  New  York  Bar  in  1898.  Practiced  in 
New  York  until  1905.  vSoon  after  the  decease  of  his  father  he  re- 
moved to  New  Milford,  where  he  now  resides  and  practices. 

Ai.nKRT  Sedgwick  was  born  in 
Cornwall  in  1801.  He  held  the 
office  of  Sheritt  1834  and  1835 
and  also  from  1838  to  1854  in 
which  latter  year  he  resigned  the 
office,  having  been  appointed 
School  Fund  Commissioner  of 
Connecticut  which  office  he  held 
for  twelve  years  during  wdiich 
time  he  resided  in  Hartford.  He 
was  an  ardent  and  active  poli- 
tician, with  a  genial  pleasing  way 
and  won  many  voters  to  his  side 
at  the  polls.  He  died  in  Litch- 
field at  the  residence  of  his 
daughter  Mrs.  Thomas  AL  Coe 
in  1878.  He  at  one  thne  was 
greatly  interested  in  developing 
the  mining  of  Nickel  in  the 
western  part  of  Litchfield,  but  the  opening  of  the  civil  war  and  dis- 
covery of  the  rich  silver  deposits  in  the  great  West  ruined  this 
industrv  in  Connecticut. 


282  LITCHFIELD  COUNTY  P-EXCH  AND  BAR 

Frederick  A.  Scott,  born  in  Plymouth  in  1866,  graduated  from 
Yale  1889,  from  Yale  Law  School  in  1891  and  admitted  to  this  Bar 
the  same  year.  Resides  at  Terryville,  practices  at  Hartford.  Has 
been  Clerk  of  the  different  branches  of  the  General  Assembly  and 
in  1901  was  Clerk  of  P»ills  in  that  body.  Represents  Plymouth  in 
the  General  Assembly  of  1909. 

H():\iER  R.  ScoNiLLE  was  born  in  Harwinton  ini865.  graduated 
at  Williams  College  in  1890,  the  Xew  York  Law  School  in  1892, 
and  was  admitted  to  that  Bar  the  same  year.  After  a  few  years 
practice  in  New  York  City,  he  removed  to  Torrington,  Conn.,  and 
was  admitted  to  this  liar  in  1900.  He  is  now  in  active  practice  in 
Torrington. 

Charles  F.  Sedgavick.  The  following  obituary  of  this  distin- 
guished member  of  our  Bar  is  taken  from  the  50th  Conn.  Reports, 
for  which  it  was  prepared  by  his  colleague  and  friend  Bro.  Donald 
J .  Warner : 

Charles  F.  Sedgwick  was  born  in  Cornwall,  Litchfield  County, 
Connecticut,  Septemeber  i,  1795.  His  grandfather  Gen.  John 
Sedgwick,  was  a  major  in  the  Revolutionary  army,  and  a  major- 
general  of  the  State  Militia.  His  ancestory  is  traced  to  Robert 
Sedgwick,  one  of  Cromwell's  Generals. 

He  was  a  brother  of  the  late  Albert  Sedgwick,  and  a  cousin  of 
the  renowned  Gen.  John  Sedgwick,  of  the  Sixth  Corps  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potoma. 

After  graduating  at  Williams  College,  1813,  he  took  charge  of 
an  academy  in  Sharon,  Conn,  and  at  the  same  time  studied  law,  and 
was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  ^larch,  1820.  He  immediately  located 
in  Sharon,  and  there  continued  in  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
and  ended  there  his  life's  work. 

He  married  Betsy,  daughter  of  Judge  Cyrus  Swan,  of  Sharon, 
October  15,  1821. 

He  was  early  a  member  of  the  Legislature  in  Ijoth  branches,  a  Judge 
of  the  Court  of  Probate  for  the  District  of  Sharon,  and  from  1856 
to  1874  was  States  Attorney  for  the  county. 

He  inherited  and  manifested  a  special  admiraticMi  for  military 
affairs,  and  was  appointed  Brigadier  General  of  the  State  Militia  in 
1829,  and  afterwards  Major  General  of  the  Third  Military  Division 
of  the  State.  Physically,  he  was  a  remarkable  man  ;  large,  tall,  and 
erect,  his  appearance  in  and  out  of  the  court  room  was  attractive 
and  commanding.  As  a  lawyer  not  arrogant,  not  brilliant,  always 
courteous,  a  ready,  fluent  advocate,  presenting  his  views  of  the  case 
on  trial  with  force  and  zeal,  commanding  the  respect  of  the  court 
and  jury. 

]n  the  discharge  of  his  duty  as  a  public  jirosecutor,  the  ad- 
ministration of  his  office  was  characterized  by  the  a])plication  of  the 
principle  "that  ninety-nine  guilty  ]U"rsons  should  escape,  rather  than 


BIOGRAPHICAI,  XOTES  283 

one  innocent  person  should  snfifer."  His  habits  were  exemplary; 
tobacco  and  intoxicants  in  all  their  forms  were  to  him  abhorrent. 

The  current  events  of  the  day  were  all  noted  by  him,  and  he  de- 
lighted in  works  of  history,  biography  and  genealogy.  His  wonder- 
fully retentive  memory,  bodily  vigor,  and  genial  nature  made  him 
a  delightful  talker  in  the  social  circle,  and  eminently  useful  in  fur- 
nishing information  of  and  concerning  persons  and  their  affairs.  K 
it  became  necessary  to  find  a  collateral  or  other  heir  to  an  estate,  or 
to  insert  a  branch  in  the  genealogical  tree  of  a  family  in  Western 
Connecticut,  Gen.  Sedgwick  was  referred  to  as  a  living  compen- 
dum  of  the  required  information,  and  his  detailed  reminiscences  of 
the  peculiarities  and  characteristics  of  persons  always  interested  his 
hearers  and  often  excited  their  merriment. 

His  centennial  address  and  history  of  the  town  of  Sharon  in 
1865,  is  a  valuable  depository  of  knowledge  for  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town.  He  lived  soberly,  he  waited  for  death  calmly  and  died  in 
communion  with,  the  Congregational  Church  at  Sharon,  March  9th, 
1882,  in  his  Sjtli  year.     Picture  on  page  70. 

Edward  Woodruff  Sey:\I()IK,  a  Judge  of  the  Su])rcnK'  Court  of 
this  State,  died  at  Litchfield,  on  the  i6th  day  of  October,  1892.  He 
was  born  at  Litchfield,  August  30th.  1832  the  oldest  son  of  Chief 
justice  Origen  S.  Seymour.  His  mother  was  a  sister  of  George 
C.  W'oodruff,  Esq.,  of  Litchfield,  a  prominent  lawyer  there,  and 
Judge  Lewis  ?>.  Woodruff  of  New  York.  He  graduated  at  Yale 
in  1853,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  Litchfield  in  1856,  where 
he  continued  to  practice  until  1875,  when  he  removed  to  Bridgeport, 
and  formed  a  partnership  with  his  younger  brother,  ^lorris  W. 
Seymour,  with  whom  he  was  associated  until  1889,  when  he  was 
appointed  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors.  He  was  for 
several  years  Judge  of  Probate  in  the  Litchfield  district.  He  repre- 
sented Litchfield  in  the  State  Legislature  in  1859-60-70-7 t.  and  was 
a  member  of  the  State  Senate  in  1876.  He  represented  his  tlistrict 
in  Congress  from  1882  to  1886.  He  was  one  of  the  representatives 
of  the  diocese  of  Connecticut  in  the  general  conventions  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States. 

As  a  lawyer  he  was  thorcnigh,  quick  in  perception,  sound  in  re- 
fiection,  pleasing  and  eft'ective  in  speech.  He  prepared  his  causes 
conscientously.  His  knowledge  of  men.  his  quick  wit,  his  rare  ap- 
I)rehension  of  humor  and  humorous  things,  his  abounding  good 
judgment,  his  intellectual  alacrity  in  emergencies,  and  his  courage 
in  a  crisis  gave  him  a  fine  outfit  for  practice.  He  cross-examined 
a  witness  always  with  skill,  and  sometimes  with  genius.  But  no 
tempation  to  score  a  point  ever  led  him  into  the  petty  tyranny  of 
abusing  a  witness.  He  wore  the  golden  rule  on  his  heart  and  re- 
membered that  the  man  in  the  witness  box  was  a  brother. 

As  a  Judge,  without  being  hortatorv  he  warmed  his  opinions 
with  wholesome  morals.     Such   ethics,   for  instance,  as  we  find  in 


284  IJTCiri'IKLD  COUXTV  BEXCII  AND  BAR 

the  opinion  in  Coupland  vs.  Houstonic  Railroad  Company,  in  the 
6ist  Conn.,  make  good  reacUng.  His  career  as  a  lawyer  and  Judge 
strengthens  our  attachment  to  our  profession  which  he  adorned. 

Judge  Seymour  is  mourned  by  the  Bar  and  by  the  bench  of  the 
State  with  a  common  and  tender  grief.  Years  of  closest  intimacy 
l)oun(l  many  manly  hearts  to  him  with  a  love  which  may  not  be  told, 
but  which  must  be  undying-.  His  grave  is  the  tomb  of  hope  and 
promise  and  of  a  life  broken  when  it  was  strongest.  He  was  buried 
in  the  afternoon  of  a  gentle  October  day,  when  the  sun  shone 
through  the  clouds  and  brightened  the  gold  and  scarlet  and  crimson 
of  fading  nature,  and  he  was  buried  in  love. 

From  Henry  C.  Robinson's  sketch  in  the  ()2d  Conn.  Reports. 


A  TRIBUTE  BY  JUDGE  FENN. 

Yesterday  morning,  at  Litchfield,  there  passed  from  week-day 
toil  into  Sunday  rest,  from  work  so  consecrated  that  it  was  worship 
into  eternal  peace — as  pure  a  soul,  and  as  gentle,  as  ever  parted  from 
earth  to  enter  heaven.  One  who  speaks  from  a  torn  heart  because 
he  loved  him  living,  and  loved  him  dead  ;  one  who  met  him  in  de- 
lightful social  intercourse  four  days  last  week,  (the  last  time  on 
Friday),  in  seeming  health,  full  of  life  and  its  interests,  and  to  whom 
the  telegram  announcing  his  sudden  death  came  with  shocking 
agony,  can  neither  be  silent  or  speak  with  1  calm,  dispassionate 
utterance,  in  such  an  hour.  Edward  W.  Seymour  lies  dead  at  the 
age  of  sixty,  in  the  town  in  which  he  was  born,  and  on  the  street 
where  he  has  always  lived.  The  oldest  son  of  the  late  Chief  Justice, 
Origen  S.  Seymour,  he  inherited  the  rare  judicial  temperament,  the 
calm,  candid,  impartial  judgment,  the  love  of  mercy-tempered  jus- 
tice, so  essentially  characteristic  of  his  father.  Educated  at  Yale 
College,  a  graduate  of  the  famous  class  of  1853,  stud\ing  law  in  his 
father's  office,  entering  into  partnership  with  him,  early  and  fre- 
quently called  to  represent  his  town,  and  later  his  senatorial  district 
in  the  General  Assembly,  a  useful  member  of  Congress  for  four 
years,  having  in  the  meantime,  by  devotion  to  his  profession,  as  well 
as  by  natural  ability,  become  the  acknowdedged  leader  of  the  Bar  in 
the  two  counties  of  Litchfield  aud  Fairfield ;  certainl\-  it  was  the  prin- 
ciple of  natural  selection  which  three  years  ago  led  to  his  choice  as 
a  member  of  our  highest  judicial  tribunal — the  Supreme  Court  of 
Errors  of  this  State.  While  of  his  services  upon  that  Court  this  is 
neither  the  time,  or  place,  to  speak  with  fullness,  it  has  been  the 
l)rivilege  of  the  writer  to  know  them  somewhat  thoroughly,  and  be- 
cause of  such  knowledge  he  can  the  more  truly  bear  witness  to  the 
rare  spirit  of  fidelity  to  duty,  to  justice,  to  law,  as  a  living,  pervading 
and  beneficent  rule  of  action,  with  which,  whether  upon  the  bench 
listening  to,  and  weighing  the  arguments  and  contentions  of  counsel, 
in  private  study,  in  the  consultation  room,  or  in  the  written  opinions 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES 


28: 


-of  the  Court,  which  bear  his  name,  the  high  duties  of  that  great 
othce  have  been  sacredly  discharged.  When  Chief-Justice  Seymour 
died,  Governor  Richard  D.  Hubbard,  in  a  public  address,  declared : 
"I  think  we  can  all  say  in  very  truth  and  soberness,  and  with  nothing 
of  extravagance  in  eulogy,  that  we  have  just  lost  the  foremost,  nn- 
■deniably  the  foremost  lawyer,  and  take  him  for  all  in  all,  the  noblest 
citizen  of  onr  State."  If  it  be  too  much  to  say  this  of  a  son,  whose 
years  were  almost  a  score  less  than  those  of  the  father,  surely  it  is 
not  too  mnch  to  affirm  that  never  did  son  tread  more  worthily  in  the 
footsteps  of  an  honored  parent,  and  never  did  nntimely  death  break 
truer  promise  than  this  which  has  deprived  our  State  of  those  years 
of  ripened  usefulness,  which  would  have  made  the  career  of  the 
son  as  fruitful  in  honor,  and  all  good,  and  good  to  all,  as  that  of  the 
sire.  But  God  knows  best,  and  doubtless  what  is,  is  for  the  best. 
Certainly  to  him  who  lies  crowned  with  the  beautiude  of  Christ,  upon 
the  pure  in  heart,  it  is  well. — Ai/ouSTus  H.  Fkxx. 
Picture  on  page  130. 

AIosEs  Seymour,  Jr. 
was  born  in  Litchfield  on 
June  30th,  1774.  He  held 
the  office  of  Sheriff  from 
1819  to  1825.  He  gave 
little  personal  attention  to 
it,  being  actively  engaged 
in  business, — and  deputiz- 
ing his  brother  (Jzias  who 
was  his  deputy,  to  attend 
to  the  Court  duties.  He 
was  for  a  while  Postmaster 
at  Litchfield.  He  gave  the 
site  on  which  the  Court 
House  is  now  located  to  the 
County  to  be  used  only  for 
County  purposes.  He  was 
a  large  landholder,  and  en- 
gaged largely  in  the  ex- 
change    and    sale    of   real 

property.     He  died  in  Litchfield,   ^lay  8,   1826.      (See   Sedgwick's 

Address.) 

Origex  S.  Seymour,  born  in  Litchfield  February  9,  1804,  grad- 
itated  from  Yale  College  in  1824,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1826  and 
located  in  his  native  town  in  which  he  resided  until  his  decease, 
August  12,  1 88 1.  He  frequentlv  represented  the  town  of  Litch- 
field in  the  General  Assemblv  and  was  elected  Speaker  of  the  House 
in  1850.  In  185 1  he  was  elected  to  Congress  and  again  in  1853. 
In  1855  he  was^lected  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Superior  Court, 
%vhich^  office  he  held  eight  vears.     In  1864  and  1865  he  was  nomi- 


286  LITCIIFIKLD  COUNTY  liKXCTI  AND  BAR 

nated  for  Governor  by  the  Democratic  Party.  In  1870  he  was 
elected  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors  and  in  1873  was  its 
Chief  Justice,  which  ollice  he  held  until  retired  by  the  Constitutional 
limitation  of  age  in  1874.  After  his  retirement  he  was  engaged 
most  of  the  time  as  a  referee.  The  new  code  practice  adopted  by 
the  Legislature  in  1879  was  prepared  by  a  Commission  over  which 
lie  presided.  He  received  the  degree  of  L.  L.  D.  from  Trinity  Col- 
lege in  1866  and  from  Yale,  1873. 

The  obituary  notice  and  tributes  to  his  great  worth  published  in 
the  48  Conn.  Report  are  but  faint  expressions  of  the  feelings  of  all 
of  the  legal  fraternity  and  leading  citizens  of  the  State  of  Connecti- 
cut regarding  this  distinguished  member  of  our  Bar. 

The  following  obituary  notice  was  published  by  the  New  Haven 
Register  at  the  time  of  Judge  Seymour's  death  :  "This  distinguished 
citizen  of  Connecticut  died  at  his  home  in  Litchfield,  this  morning, 
after  a  comparatively  brief  illness,  in  his  78th  year.  Possessed  of  a 
fondness  for  study,  lie  prepared  for  college,  and  entered  Yale  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  graduating  in  the  class  of  1824.  His  chosen  "pro- 
fession was  the  law,  and  by  his  assiduity  and  natural  gifts  he  speedi- 
ly arrived  at  the  highest  rank  at  the  Bar.  Though  devoted  to  his 
profession  he  engaged  astivily  in  politics,  espousing  the  Democratic 
cause.  He  was  a  memljer  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Con- 
necticut in  1842,  1843,  1849  si''*^^  1850,  being  Speaker  in  the  latter 
year.  In  1851  he  was  elected  to  Congress  from  the  4th  District, 
and  at  the  expiration  of  his  term  was  re-elected.  In  1855  he  be- 
came a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  continuing  in  office  until  1863. 
In  1870  he  was  promoted  to  the  Supreme  I5ench.  He  was  Chief 
Justice  from  June  5,  1873,  to  February  9,  1874,  when  he  became 
disqualified  l)y  reason  of  having  reached  the  age  of  70  years,  and 
retired  from  the  Bench,  which  he  had  greatly  adorned.  L^pon  his 
retirement  from  tiic  Bench  he  resumed  the  jiractice  of  the  law,  be- 
ing consulted  in  a  great  number  of  important  cases.  He  served  on 
various  State  Commissions,  one  of  which  was  that  appointed  to 
settle  the  disj^uted  boundaries  between  New  York  and  Connecticut. 
His  most  important  recent  public  duty  was  that  upon  the  commis- 
sion to  revise  the  Civil  Practice  in  the  State  courts.  Of  this  com- 
mission he  was  the  chief  part,  and  the  report  adooted  by  the  com- 
mission, of  which  he  is  the  repute<l  author,  was  ratified  by  the  Legis- 
lature and  is  now  the  established  law  of  the  commonwealth.  The 
series  of  brilliant  lectures  delivered  ])\-  liim  befcire  the  Yale  Law 
School  anil  numbers  of  the  New  Haven  Bar.  in  advocacy  of  the 
ado])tion  of  the  revised  civil  practice,  had  mucli  to  do  with  its  final 
adoption.  Though  advanced  in  vears  he  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Reiiresentatives  of  Connecticut  in  1880,  and  was  a  con- 
1  rolling  spirit  in  tlial  bodv,  although  his  usefulness  was  impaired 
latterly  by  ill  health. 

Born  of  a  family  distinguished  both  in  law  and  in  politics.  Judge 
Sevmour  was  one  of  its  most  brilliant  scions.     He  was  a  cousin  of 


^•r-^iy-ii 


BIOGRAPHICAIv  XOTKS  "  287 

Horatio  Seymour  of  Xew  York,  a  relative  of  Ex-Governor  Thomas 
H.  Seymour  of  Connecticut,  and  leaves  behind  him  two  sons  at  the 
Bar.  Alorris  W.  Seymour  of  Bridgeport  and  Edward  W.  Seymour 
of  Litchfield  ;  another  son.  Rev.  Storrs  O.  Seymour  is  a  prominent 
Episcopal  clergyman  in  Litchfield.  In  politics  Judge  Seymour  was 
a  consistent,  unflinching  and  earnest  democrat.  In  religion  he  was 
an  Episcopalian,  being  a  devout  and  devoted  Churchman. 

While  Tudge  Seymour  was  prominent  in  all  the  walks  of  life, 
whether  in  church  attairs.  politically  or  socially,  he  will  be  chiefly 
remembered  as  a  great  lawyer  and  a  good  man.  By  his  qualities  of 
mind  and  training  he  was  specially  fitted  to  ornament  the  Bar.  His 
intellect  was  clear  and  cloudless  ;  he  grasped  the  salient  points  of  a 
controversy  with  remarkable  ease  and  quickness  ;  in  statement  he 
was  luminous,  perspicacious  and  strong.  His  style  of  oratory  was 
simple  unornamental  but  pellucid  and  most  convincing.  Those  who 
h.eard  him  argue  a  case  were  convinced  in  spite  of  themselves  that 
Judge  Seymour  reasoned  from  internal  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
his  cause  and  they  felt  that  the  argument  flowed  from  his  intellect 
as  a  logical  se(|uence  of  established  facts.  Hence  he  was,  while 
unrhetorical,  a  most  persuasive  speaker.  By  his  death  the  Bar  of 
the  State  loses  its  brightest  luminary,  his  ])arty  an  able  and  ellective. 
advocate,  the  church  a  pious  and  noble  member,  and  society 
one  who  was  amiable,  "entle  and  afl-'ectionate,  and  who  loved 
mankind  because  he  recognized  in  them  something  akin  to  divinity. 
\'iewed  in  every  as])ect  his  death  must  be  regarded  as  a  pul)lic 
calamitN.  That  he  will  rest  in  ])eace  needs  no  assurance.  With 
such  a  noble  life,  such  lofty  asjjirations.  such  a  pure  purpose,  and 
with  such  noble  fulfillments  of  the  promises  of  his  early  manhood, 
he  leaves  behind  him  a  record  which,  while  it  is  the  honor  and  glory 
of  his  family,  is  also  a  delight  and  blessing  to  the  public.  Judge 
Seymour  was  a  good  and  great  man.      1  le  needs  no  further  eulogy. 

His  ])ortrait  is  on  page  210. 

OziAS  SiiVMouR  was  born  in  Litchfield  July  3,  1776,  was  a  brother 
of  Closes  Seymour.  Jr.  He  held  the  otiice  of  Sherifl^  from  1825, 
when  he  succeeded  his  brother  in  that  otlice.  to  1834.  He  was  the 
father  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Seymour.  He  died  in  Litchfield. 
His  picture  is  included  in  the  Se}niour  group. 

Morris  W.  Skymotr.  son  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Origen  S. 
Seymour  and  brother  of  the  late  Supreme  Court  Judge.  Edward  W. 
Se'vmour.  was  born  in  Litchfield  in  1842.  was  a  member  of  the  class 
of  1866  Yale,  graduated  from  Columbia  Law  School  in  1868  and  was 
at  once  admit'ted  to  the  Litchfield  County  Bar.  Mr.  Seymour  be- 
gan practice  in  Bridgeport  and  was  soon  elected  successively  city 
clerk,  citv  attornev  and  corporation  counsel.  In  1881  and  1882  he 
was  a  member  of  the  State  Senate  and  was  chietly  instrumental  in 
establishing  the  State  Board  of  Pardons  of  which  he  has  been  for 
manv  vears.  a  valued  member.     He  has  been  lecturer  on  law  at  Yale 


288  I.lTCni^lF.LD  COUNTY  BENCH  AND  BAR 

University  and  has  given  especial  attention  to  admirality  and  patent 
cases  in  the  highest  courts  of  the  nation.  Mr.  Seymour's  summer 
residence  is  at  the  old  homestead  in  Litclifield. 

Origen  Storrs  Sev-MOur,  is  a  son  of  Morris  \\'.  Seymour,  gradu- 
ated from  Yale  Ccjllege  in  1894  and  from  Yale  Law  School  in  1896 
and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  i8y6.  Is  in  practice  in  Xew  York 
City. 

Frank  W.  vSi;vmol'R,  born  in  Colebruok  in  1871,  graduated  from 
Yale  College  in  1892  from  Yale  Law  School  in  1894,  admitted  to 
this  r»ar  in  1894.  Resides  in  Winsted  and  is  Judge  of  the  \\'in- 
chester  Town  Court,  and  Judge  of  Probate  of  that  district. 

J.\MES  P.  SiiELLEY  was  born  in  Torrington  in  1859  and  admitted 
to  this  ]>ar  in  1889.  Resides  and  practices  at  ^^  insted.  Has  a 
large  practice  in  Pension  matters  and  Government  claims. 

George  F.  SiiEeton  was  a  native  of  Southbury,  but  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  185 1.  He  located  at  Seymour  and  soon  be- 
came interested  in  extensive  manufacturing  operations  in  that  town. 
He  was  ver_\-  active  in  State  Military  matters  and  at  one  time  held 
the  office  of  Major  General.  He  was  also  very  prominent  in  politi- 
cal affairs.     He  died  at  Seymour.  October  17,  1902. 

George  F.  ShEi.ton  was  born  in  Southbury  and  graduated  from 
Yale  College  in  1877.  He  studied  law  in  Woodbury  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1880.  His  professional  life  has  been  in  the 
\\'estern  States  very  nuich  interested  in  railroad  litigation.  He  is 
now  in  practice  in  Butte,  ^Montana,  and  is  one  of  the  counsel  for 
Senator  William  A.  Clark  in  his  extensive  mining  industries. 

Stephen  ShEi.tox  Avas  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  181 1  from 
Plymouth. 

I)axjI';i,  SiiivR.MAN,  of  Woodbur\-.  born  August  14.  1721,  was 
perhaps  the  most  distinguished  man  that  had  arisen  in  the  town 
])revious  to  his  day.  He  was  a  descendant  of  Samuel  Sherman,  of 
Stratford  wlio  emigrated  to  this  country  from  England,  in  company 
with  bis  brotlier.  Rev.  John  Sherman,  and  bis  nephew,  Capt.  John 
Sherman,  ancestor  of  Hon.  Roger  Sherman.  He  was  a  justice  of 
the  quorum  for  twenty-five  years,  a  Judge  of  the  Litchfield  County 
Court  for  five  years  from  1786.  For  sixteen  years  he  was  Probate 
Clerk  for  the  district  of  Woodbury,  and  Judge  of  that  district  for 
thirt}-seven  years.  He  represented  his  native  town  in  the  General 
i\ssembly  sixty-five  sessions,  retaining  the  unbounded  confidence 
of  his  fellow-citizens.  This  was  by  far  the  longest  period  of  time 
any  one  has  ever  rejiresented  the  town.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  Safety  from  1777  to  1781.  He  was  a  man  of  command- 
ing powers  of  mind,  of  sterling  integrity,  and  every  way  qualified 
for  the  various  public  trusts  confided  to  his  care.  He  died  at  W'ood- 
biu-y.  July  2.   1 799,  full  of  honors,  and  was  followed  by  the  affec- 


BIOGRAnilCAL-  XOTES  289 

tionate  recollections  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  among  whom 
he  had  so  long  lived.  (History  of  Woodbury).  He  was  the  an- 
cestor of  ^lajor-General  William  T.  Sherman,  and  of  Hon.  John 
Sherman,  ]\1.  C. 

Roger  SiiErmax^  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in 
1776,  was  born  in  Massachusetts,  and  came  to  New  JNIilford  in  1750. 
He  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1754  and  in  1761  removed  to  New 
Haven  where  he  lived  until  his  death,  July  2;^,  1793.  See  article  on 
Signers  of  the  Declaration,  page  172. 

Oeix'ER  Skixxer,  born  in  Litchfield  July  18,  1782,  and  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1803. 

Richard  Skixxer,  LL.  D.  was  born  in  Litchfield  ]\Iay  30th, 
1778,  the  son  of  General  Timothy  Skinner  and  Susannah  ALirsh, 
his  wife.  He  was  admitted  to  the  IJar  in  1800,  and  removed  to 
IManchester,  At. 

At  the  deidcation  of  the  Mark  Skinner  Library  in  that  town 
July  7,  1897,  the  following  sketch  of  Richard  Skinner  was  given  by 
his  townsman.  Judge  Loveland  Alunson:  "It  was  in  the  year  1800 
that  Richard  Skinner,  then  22  years  of  age,  and  fresh  from  the 
Litchfield  Law  School,  became  a  resident  of  Manchester  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  his  profession.  He  was  appointed  State's 
Attorney  for  Bennington  County  in  the  second  year  of  his  practice, 
was  elected  Judge  of  Probate  for  the  District  of  Manchester  five 
years  later,  and  was  continued  in  those  ottices  until  called  to  more 
important  fields  of  service.  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  from 
1813  to  1815,  three  times  chosen  Governor  of  the  State,  a  Judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  for  eight  years,  the  first  Chief  judge 
of  the  Court  as  now  organized.  The  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 
is  sufliciently  attested  by  the  fact  that  for  twenty-eight  years,  and 
until  his  voluntary  retirement,  he  was  continuously  in  the  public 
service."     His  death  occurred  in  Manchester  May  23,  1833. 

R()r.i-:R  SkixxivK  was  a  brother  of  Richard  Skinner,  and  was 
born  in  Litchfield  June  10,  1773,  and  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1793. 
He  began  ])ractice  in  Litchfield  but  removed  to  the  State  of  Xew 
York.  He  was  Judge  of  the  Lnited  States  Court  in  the  Northern 
District  of  that  State. 

Roger  S.  Skixxer  graduate  from  Yale  College  in  1813  and  was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1816. 

Barzieeai  Slossox  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1791,  was 
admitted  to  the  Fairfield  County  Bar  in  1793,  and  settled  in  Kent, 
where  he  died  in  1843.      (See  Boardman's  Sketches). 

Joiix  Seossox,  a  son  of  the  foregoing  was  admitted  to  this  Bar 
in  1 801.     Resided  in  Kent  where  he  was  a  prosperous  merchant. 

W'iLi.iA:\r  Slossox  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1800  from  Kent. 


290 


LITCHFIELD  COUXTY  BEXCII  AND  BAR 


Aarox  Smith  was  a  son  of  Gen.  David  Smith  of  Plymouth,  grad- 
uated at  Yale  in  1790,  studied  at  Reeves  Law  School  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1793.  In  1809  he  located  in  Litchfield,  where 
he  held  many  otlicial  positions  and  died  there  in  1834. 

ChauxcKy  Smith,  was  a  lawyer  in  Sharun  in  1819,  1820. 
(Conn  Reg.) 

Erastus  S.mitii  of  Plymouth  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1828, 
and  located  in  Hartford  about  1833  and  practiced  there  for  forty 
years.     He  died  in   1878. 

James  W.  Smith  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1884.  He  went  to- 
Kansas  and  practiced  a  few  years  and  in  1895  returned  to  W'insted 
where  he  is  now  in  practice. 

JoHX  CuTTox  Smith,  born 
in  Sharon  February,  12,  1765,. 
graduated  from  Yale  in  1783, 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1786. 
He  located  in  his  native  town 
where  he  died  December  7th, 
1845.  I^'s  whole  life  was  one 
continual  employment  in  |)ub- 
lic  official  capacity,  was  rep- 
pesentative  in  Congress  four 
terms ;  Judge  of  the  Superior 
and  Supreme  Courts  of  Con- 
necticut ;  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut 1813  to  1817.  It  is 
impossible  in  this  brief  state- 
ment to  mention  all  of  his  other  positions.  A  memorial  biography 
of  his  life  was  published.      See  Boardman's  I{arly  Lights. 

Joiix  C()TT(^x  S:\nTH.  Jr.,  born  in  Tivoli,  X.  Y.,  graduated  from 
'S'ale  in  1830,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1832.  He  resided  in  Sharon 
and  is  known  nuich  better  as  a  politician  than  lawyer.  He  held  a 
very  influential  position  in  the  I3emocratic  party  for  many  years. 
He  died  at  Sharon,  November  21,  1879,  aged  68  years. 

Joseph  L.  Smiiif,  born  in  Xew  Britain,  Conn.,  ]\Iay  2S.  1776, 
located  in  Litchfield  about  1802.  where  he  practiced  until  the  war 
of  1812.  He  married  one  of  Ephriam  Kirby's  daughters.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  active  part  he  took  in  the  6th  of  August  Festival 
]8o6,  he  lost  most  of  his  ])ractice.  He  was  appointed  by  tlie  ad- 
ministration a  Major  in  the  war  of  1812,  remaining  in  service  till 
1818,  when  he  removed  to  Florida.  From  1823  to  1827  he  was 
a  Judge  of  the  Lnited  States  District  Court  for  Florida.  He  died 
at  St.  Augustine  May  24.  1846.  Gen.  Ephriam  Kirby  Smith  who 
was  the  last  Confederate  General  to  surrender  his  command  was  a 
descendant  of  the  above. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES  29! 

Junius  Smith  was  a  son  of  Gen.  David  Smith  and  a  brother  of 
Aaron  Smith,  born  in  Plymouth  October  2.  1780.  He  graduated 
at  Yale  College  in  1802,  and  then  attended  the  Litchfield  Law 
School,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  and  began  his  practice  in 
New  Haven.  Init  soon  became  interested  in  mercantile  business 
which  necessitated  his  removal  in  1805  to  London,  England,  and 
in  which  he  was  engaged  until  about  1832. 

During  this  period  Robert  Fulton  had  demonstrated  the  practic- 
ability of  using  steam  for  propelling  vessels  and  Smith  conceived 
the  idea  that  steam  could  be  used  in  Ocean  Xavigation.  It  was  a 
preposterous  scheme  at  that  time.  The  little  boats  would  move  on 
narrow  rivers  outside  of  waves  and  winds  but  on  the  broad  bosom 
of  the  ocean  Neptune's  power  coukl  not  be  withstood,  and  Smith's 
efforts  were  laughed  at  as  fancies  of  an  idle  dreamer.  He  per- 
severed, however,  after  many  rebuff's  both  in  England  and  America 
some  of  which  were  strangely  laughable  ;  he  succeeded  in  chartering^ 
a  trial  vessel  but  no  one  would  take  any  stock  in  his  building  one. 
After  six  years  the  Sirius  a  small  craft  of  seven  hundred  tons 
steamed  out  of  the  harbor  of  Cork  on  April  4.  1838.  bound  for 
America  or  as  the  papers  of  the  day  had  it  for  destruction,  but  in 
nineteen  days  steamed  into  the  bay  of  Xew  York. 

The  arrival  of  this  craft  under  steam  in  Xew  York  opened  the 
new  era  of  commerce  and  it  was  not  long  before  a  compan\-  was 
formed  and  a  new  steamship  called  the  British  Queen  was  built 
and  soon  Smith  received  great  honors,  Yale  College  adding  an  L, 
L.  D.  to  his  name. 

He  subsequently  bought  a  plantation  in  South  Carolina  and  be- 
gan the  culture  of  the  tea  plant  which  he  imported  from  China,  and 
proved  the  possibilitv  of  growing  it  successfully  in  the  United  States. 

X^ATiiAXiEL  S:\riTii  was  born  in  1762,  within  the  limits  of  the 
present  town  of  Washington,  then  a  part  of  Woodbury.  He  com- 
menced life  a  farmer  and  cattle  dealer,  with  scarcely  the  advantages 
of  a  common  education.  Such,  however,  was  the  impulse  of  his^ 
powers,  he  surmounted  all  obstacles.  Studied  law  with  Ephraim 
Kirby  and  Judge  Reeve,  at  Litchheld,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar 
in  that  county  in  1787.  He  commenced  the  practice  of  law  at 
Woodbury  and  rose  more  raj^idly  to  the  highest  grade  of  his  pro- 
fession than  almost  any  other  man  has  done.  His  powers  of 
thought  and  elocution  gave  him  almost  unlimited  dominion  over  his 
audience.  He  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in 
the  State  Legislature  October  1789,  October  1791.  May  1792,  Oc- 
tober 1794  and  [May  1795.  Li  1797  he  was  elected  a  representative 
from  this  State  in  the  Congress  of  the  L'nited  States.  Having- 
served  in  that  capacity  two  terms  he  declined  a  re-election  in  1801. 
In  1802,  he  was  elected  to  the  Council  or  L^pi^er  House  of  the 
Legislature  of  this  State;  a  situation  he  resigned  in  1804.  In  1805, 
he  was  appointed  States  Attorney  for  the  County  of  Litchfield,  and 


292  LITCHFIELD  COUXTY  BEXCH  AXD  BAR 

Judo^e  of  the  Supreme  Court,  iu  October,   1806.     In  the  latter  of- 
hce  he  continued  until  1819.     He  died  INIarch  8th,  1822. 

Xatjiaxkl  Vj.  Smith,  born  in  Woodbur)-  December  1795,  gradu- 
ated from  Yale  College  in  181 5  and  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  181 8. 
He  began  practice  at  Xew  Haven  but  soon  removed  to  Woodburv. 
He  continued  in  practice  only  a  few  years.     He  died  in  Woodbury. 

Col.  Xathaxll  Smith,  a  son  of  Xathaniel  B.  Smith,  born  in 
Woodbury  in  183 1,  admitted  to  the  Bar.  Xever  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  law  and  during  the  rebellion  was  appointed  Major  of 
the  19th  Conn.  Infantry  and  was  promoted  to  be  its  Lieutenant 
Colonel,  resigning  therefrom  for  disability  ^lay  6,  1864.  He  died 
at  Woodbury  August  26,  1877. 

Xathax  S.aiith  was  born  in  Roxbury  in  1770  and  was  admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1792  and  located  in  Xew  Haven.  He  became  one  of 
the  most  celebrated  lawyers  in  the  State,  and  had  a  very  extensive 
business.  He  was  United  States  Senator  and  died  while  holding 
that  position  in  the  City  of  Washington,  December  6,  1835. 

Perry  Simith  was  born  in  Washington,  Conn.,  studied  law  at 
the  Litchfield  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1807  and 
settled  in  Xew  Alilford,  where  he  died  in  1852.  He  was  a  United 
States  Senator  for  six  years  from  March  4,  1837. 

BFrixKAS  S:\riTH,  Jr.  was  a  younger  brother  of  Hon.  Truman 
Smith,  born  in  Roxbury,  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1816,  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1818  and  removed  to  \"ermont,  where  he  died. 

Richard  S-Mith  was  burn  in  Rcjxljury  in  1769,  graduated  from 
Yale  College  in  1797,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1801  and  died  in  1805. 

Richard  S.mitii,  a  native  of  Sharon  graduated  from  Yale  Col- 
lege in  1825,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1830,  died  in  Sharon,  December 
21,  1878,  aged  76. 

TRu:\r.\x  S-Mitii  was  a  son  of  Phineas  and  Deborah  Ann  ( Jud- 
son)  Smith  and  was  born  in  Roxbury,  Conn,  on  the  27th  of  Xoveni- 
ber,  17(^1. 

Mr.  Smith  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  the  class  of  181 5,  was 
admitted  to  the  liar  in  1818,  and  located  in  Litchfield  where  he  re- 
sided until  1854  when  he  removed  to  Stamfcird,  residing  there  until 
his  death,  Alay  3rd,  1885. 

Two  of  his  uncles.  Xathaniel  Smith  and  Xathan  Smith  had  at- 
tained fame  and  rank  at  the  liar  and  in  public  life,  and  it  seems 
natural  tliat  Truman  Smith  should  be  a  successful  pTactioner  and 
be  honored  with  many  political  offices.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
State  Legislature  in  1831,  1832,  and  1834.  ^Te  was  a  member  of 
the  26th  and  27th  Congress  (1839-43)  for  the  5th  District  and  of 
the  29th  and  30th    (1845   to.  1849)    ^o^  ^^^^  4^^'^  District.     He  was 


BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES  293 

chairman  of  the  Xational  Committee  in  the  Taylor  campagin  and 
offered  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  which  he  dechned.  From  1849  to  1854 
he  was  a  member  of  the  U.  S.  Senate.  This  honor  he  resigned  and 
opened  an  office  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  continued  in  practice 
there  until  the  i6th  day  of  May,  1871,,  when  he  handed  over  all  his 
business  to  a  vounger  lawyer,  Cephas  15rainerd,  retaining-  in  his  own 
hands  but  two  cases,  known  as  the  Lockwood  and  the  Humaston 
cases. 

President  Lincoln  appointed  ]\Ir.  Smith  Judge  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States  of  the  Mixed  Court  at  Xew  York,  established  untler 
the  treaty  of  7th  of  April,  1862,  with  Great  Britain,  aniT  he  held  that 
position  until  the  abrogation  of  the  treaty  in  1870. 

At  the  Litchfield  School  where  he  acquired  the  preliminary 
knowledge  of  his  profession,  he  was  under  the  instruction  of  Tap- 
ping Reeve  and  James  Gould ;  and  among  his  fellow  students  were 
John  M.  Clayton  of  Deleware  and  John  Y.  Mason  of  \"irginia. 

Upon  entering  Congress.  ]\Ir.  Smith  at  once  took  a  prominent 
position.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  to  which  were  finally 
referred  some  of  the  questions  arising  in  regard  to  the  famous  Xew 
Jersey  Election  case  and  he  drafted  the  minority  report  upon  that 
case.  This  the  majority  in  Congress  refused  to  print,  but  it  was 
printed  in  Xqw  Jersey  and  largely  circulated.  His  associates  in  the 
minoritv  report  were  Millard  Fillmore,  John  ]\Iinor  Botts  and  Ben- 
ianfin  Randall.  The  discussion  was  conducted  with  the  greatest 
acrimony  and  John  Ouincy  .Adams  in  his  Diary  says.  "Mr.  Snfith 
made  a  speech  of  three  hours  in  answer  to  Fisher's  most  disingenuous 
speech." 

It  was  Mr.  Snuth's  haliit  all  through  his  Congressional  career 
to  discuss  ill  c.vtciiso  some  of  the  more  important  measures  pending 
in  the  various  sessions,  and  these  speeches  he  always  circulated 
among  his  constituents,  his  feeling  being  that  they  ought  to  know 
from  the  ])rinted  speeches  as  well  as  from  the  votes  of  their  repre- 
sentatives what  they  were  actually  doing  and  saying  in  Congress. 

Mr.  Smith  was  deeplv  interested  in  legislation  looking  to  the 
improvement  of  the  means  of  communication  in  the  countrv.  hence 
he  was  cxceedinglv  active  in  regard  to  the  construction  of  the  Sault 
Ste.  Marie  canal.  Perhaps  it  may  be  safely  said  that  the  initiation 
and  construction  of  the  canal  was  more  due  to  him  than  to  anv  other 
one  person.  One  of  his  last  speeches  in  the  Senate  was  in  advocacy 
of  a  railroad  and  telegraph  line  connecting  the  two  oceans. 

Shortly  before  he  resigned  from  the  Senate  he  made  his  speech 
famous  at  that  time  and  since,  in  reply  to  Douglas  and  against  the 
repeal  of  the  Alissouri  Compronnse. 

Mr.  Smith  came  to  X'ew  York  at  the  age  of  sixty-three,  probably 
too  late  in  life  to  attain  at  that  Bar  a  success  correspondent  to  his 
talents  and  learning.  The  most  important  case  which  he  conducted 
there  was  Lockwood  vs.  The  N.  Y.  Central  Railroad  which  is  re- 
ported in   17   \\'all.   321.     The   question   presented   was   whether   it 


:294  LITCHFIELD  COUXTV  BEXCII  AND  BAR 

was  competent  for  a  common  carrier  to  secure  exemption  from 
liability  for  negligence  by  a  stipulation  in  a  ticket  to  that  effect.  The 
particular  action  was  in  favor  of  a  drover  who  was  taking  cattle 
over  the  road  under  what  was  called  a  drover's  pass.  The  courts 
of  Xew  York  had  decided  in  favor  of  the  exemption.  ]\Ir.  Smith's 
action  was  brought  in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  and  Mr. 
justice  Smalley  overruled  the  defense  and  the  jury  returned  a  ver- 
dict for  $25,000.  This  verdict  was  set  aside  b}'  Air.  Justice  Nelson 
on  appeal  as  excessive.  The  case  came  on  for  a  second  trial  before 
Mr.  Justice  Woodruff"  who  also  overruled  the  defense  and  the  jury 
found  a  verdict  for  $17,500. 

The  case  was  then  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  and  arg-ued  on  the  15th  and  i6th  of  January,  1873.  ^^^• 
Smith  attended  upon  this  argument  and  opened  the  case  in  an  ad- 
dress of  an  hour  on  behalf  of  the  respondent.  He  argued  the  case 
upon  a  most  elaborate  brief  which  examined  all  the  authorities  bear- 
ing upon  the  question  and  it  was  most  carefully  reasoned.  The 
Supreme  Court,  speaking  1)\-  ]\[r.  Justice  Bradley,  sustained  the 
judgment  below  and  a  most  elaborate  opinion  was  written;  in  fact 
tliis  is  the  leading  case  upon  the  subject  in  this  country  today. 

The  other  case  which  Mr.  Smith  retained  in  his  hands,  the 
Humaston  case,  was  tried  before  a  jur}-,  beginning  on  Xovember 
15th,  1 87 1  and  continuing  for  thirteen  days.  This  suit  was  against 
the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company.  Mr.  Smith  had  as  his 
opponents  John  K.  Porter,  ( leorge  Gifford,  Grosvcnor  P.  Lowry  and 
Charles  Francis  Stone.  It  involved  first,  a  very  important  question 
respecting  the  interj^retation  of  the  contract  between  the  parties 
and,  secondly,  the  value  of  the  inventions  under  discussion  over  and 
above  the  cash  which  had  already  been  paid  upon  them.  Mr.  Smith 
opened  the  case  in  an  address  of  two  hours  in  which  he  explained  in 
detail  the  various  inventions  for  the  transmission  of  messages  by 
telegra])h  and  the  case  proceeded.  'Sir.  Smith  was  alone  in  the  case 
save  only  a  young  assistant  whose  cliief  Inisiness  was  to  read  papers 
and  extracts  from  authorities. 

During  the  progress  of  the  case  the  fjuestion  of  the  construction 
•of  the  instument  arose  and  was  argued  at  length,  Mr.  Smith  occu- 
pying- practically  an  entire  dav,  under  the  suggestions  of  the  ]:)rc- 
siding  Justice,  in  developing  his  view  of  the  case.  The  presiding 
Justice  afterwards  remarked  that  considering  Mr.  Smith's  age,  it 
was  the  most  remarkable  exhibition  of  ])hysical  and  mental  power 
he  had  ever  witnessed.  The  case  was  closed  and  the  jury  went  out 
about  six  o'clock  on  the  13th  day  of  the  trial.  Judge  Porter  having 
occupied  the  first  part  of  the  dav  in  summing  up  for  the  defense  and 
Mr.  Smith  the  latter  ]iart  in  summing  up  for  the  plaintiff'.  The  jury 
found  a  moderate  verdict  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff  for  $7,500. 

The  Humaston  was  a  remarkable  case  in  that  Mr.  Smith,  who 
became  eighty  during  the  trial,  was  able  to  stand  that  amount  of 
work  without  exhibiting  any  diminution  of  force  at  any  thne  during 


LlOGRAPllICAL  XOTES  295 

the  trial.  That  case  also  went  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  and  was  argued  there  on  the  30th  of  March,  1874.  I\[r.  Smith 
closing-  the  argument.  That  court  however  sustained  the  ruling  of 
Judge  Woodruff  on  the  interpretation  of  the  contract,  and  defeated 
Mr.  Smith. 

'Sir.  Smith  was  very  eft'ective  before  juries,  his  commanding 
presence  and  voice,  his  great  moral  force,  his  readiness  in  retort, 
his  wit,  his  courage  and  his  capacity  as  an  actor  and  his  elaborate 
preparation  made  him  a  very  dangerous  adversary. 

Alwavs  a  believer  in  the  essential  doctrines  of  Christianity,  as 
taught  in  the  churches  of  Xew  England,  late  in  life  he  became  a 
communicant  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Stamford. 

A\'i:i.LixGTox  B.  Smith,  born  in  Xew  Hartford  June  3.  1856, 
was  admitted  to  practice  at  this  Bar  in  1877.  He  resides  and  prac- 
tices in  \\'insted.  Conn.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  in  1902.  He  was  for  many  years  a  prosecuting  agent 
for  Litchfield  County  engaged  in  the  suppression  of  the  illegal  sale 
of  intoxicating  liquor  and  was  the  moving  spirit  of  the  liquor  trials 
a  brief  account  of  which  can  be  found  on  page  155.  He  has  repre- 
sented the  town  of  Winchester  in  the  Legislature  and  was  on 
Governor  Chamberlain's  Staff"  as  Judge  Advocate  holding  the  rank 
of  Colonel.     His  portrait  appears  on  page  158. 

Sa:\iukl  J.  SouTTiMAM),  a  native  of  Watertown  studied  in  the 
Litchfield  Law  School  and  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1795.  Practiced 
in  Watertown,  where  he  died  in  1813.      (See  Boardman's  Sketches.) 

LK:\rAX  B.  SpraguE  was  a  native  of  Salisbury  and  was  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1841.  He  soon  after  located  in  Woodbury  and  died 
there  August.  1845. 

Rui-us  STAXLiiv,  of  Litchfield,  admitted  in  1790. 

Sirni  P.  Staples,  graduated  from  Yale  in  1797.  admitted  to  this 
Bar  in  1799,  located  in  Xew  Haven,  where  he  died  in  1861. 

Daxikl  Starr,  born  in  Xew  ?\Iilford.  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1800. 
Died  ^lay  i,  1826. 

AxsEL  Sterlixg.  born  in  Lyme,  1782,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1805,  located  in  Sharon  in  1808,  where  he  died  Xovember  6,  1853. 
(See  Sedgwick's  Address). 

Elisha  Sterlixg,  born  in  Lyme,  graduated  from  Yale  in  1787, 
admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1790.  in  the  following  year  located  in  Salis- 
bury, where  he  lived  until  his  death  in  1836.  (See  Boardman's 
Sketches ). 

Toiix  :\L  Sterlixg.  son  of  Gen.  Elisha  Sterling,  born  1800,  in 
Salisbury,  graduated  at  Yale  in  1820.     Admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1823. 


296  LITCIII'IKI.I)  COUNTY  BEXCH  AND  BAR 

In  1827  he  removed  to  Cleveland,  Ohio.     Was  a  noted  anti-slavery 
reformer.     He  died  in  Philadelphia  in  1880. 

Henry  W.  Stevens,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  181 1  from  Canaan. 

James  Stevens,  horn  in  Stamford  in  1768,  admitted  to  this  Bar 
in  1797,  located  in  his  native  town  where  he  held  many  puhlic  of- 
fices and  was  elected  to  the  i6th  Congress.     Died  April  4,  1835. 

BENjA:\riN  Stiles,  a  native  of  Sonthhury,  g-raduated  from  Yale 
in  1740.     Practiced  law  in  his  native  town  of  Sonthhury. 

Benjamin  StieES,  Jr.  was  born  in  Sonthhury,  August  28,  1756, 
graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1776.  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1781,  and  practiced  in  Woodbury,  having  a  very  large  office  practice. 
He  died  July  12.  181 7. 

Eeiaki.\[  S.  Stoudakl),  Jr.,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1847  from 
Sharon.     Died  in  Sharon  May  14,  1865,  aged  42  years. 

Henry  Stoddard  was  a  native  of  Woodbury  and  born  in  1786. 
He  was  admitted,  to  this  Bar  in  1815,  and  began  to  practice  in  Kent. 
In  1818  he  left  Kent  and  went  "west"  with  George  P..  Holt  of 
Norfolk,  a  young  member  of  this  Bar  who  became  so  distinguished 
in  his  later  years  in  Ohio.  They  journeyed  on  horseback  till  they 
reached  Dayton,  (  )hio,  then  a  little  village  of  five  or  six  hundred 
inhabitants.  PI  ere  they  located,  Holt  to  become  an  honored  Judge 
and  citizen,  and  Stoddard  a  millionare. 

RoDBiNS  Battele  StoeckEL  of  Norfolk  was  born  in  New  Haven 
in  1872,  fitted  for  college  at  Hopkins  Grammar  School,  graduated 
from  Yale  with  honors  in  class  of  1893  and  Columbia  Law  School 
two  years  later  being  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  Bar  in  1896.  Mr. 
Stoeckcl  resides  and  practices  in  Norfolk  where  he  has  been  Judge 
of  Probate  for  several  }ears. 

CoE.  Adonijaii  Strong,  Judge  Church  says,  "He  was  unique  in 
genius  and  manner,  of  large  professional  business,  sound  practical 
sense  and  many  anecdotes  of  his  sayings  and  doings  are  still  re- 
membered and  rei)orted  in  the  County." 

The  following  vote  appears  upon  the  Bar  Record :  "At  a  Bar 
meeting  Deer.  Term  1804  the  following  resolution  was  passed  unan- 
imously viz.  That  Adonijah  Strong,  Esqr.  on  account  of  his  great 
cmminence  as  a  lawyer  and  eloquence  as  an  advocate  be  considered 
as  a  member  of  this  P^ar  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  students, 
although  he  shall  not  continue  to  practice.  Attest  Amos  Benedict, 
Clerk."      (  See   Warner's  Reminiscences.) 

joiix  Stkon*..  Jr.,  horn  in  Woodbury  December  31,  1786,  gradu- 
ated from  ^'ale  College  in  1806  and  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1808. 
He  opened  an  ollice  in  Wood])ury  and  continued  in  the  active  dis- 
charge of  his  professional  duties  till  his  death  in   November,   1834. 


FRANK   ir.    TURKIXGTOX 


IIIOGRAPIIICAL  XOTES  29/ 

Few  men  have  occupied  a  higher  place  in  the  confidence  and  af- 
fections of  the  community.  Was  Judge  of  Probate  and  represented 
the  town  in  the  General  Assembly  a  number  of  years. 

Tedhdiaii  Stroxc,  born  in  Litchfield,  Connecticut  in  1738.  grad- 
ated from  Yale  College  in  1761.  He  represented  his  town  in  the 
General  Court  for  thirty  sessions.  \\'as  a  member  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  and  Secretary  of  the  Convention  which  adopted 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.     He  died  in  Litchfield  in  1802. 

Marti y  Stroxg,  a  son  of  Col.  i\doniiah  Strong,  admitted  to 
this  Bar  in  1801  and  located  in  Salisbury.  He  was  Judge  of  the 
Countv  Court  and  one  of  its  most  active  magistrates.  (See  Sedg- 
wick's Address). 

TiiEROX  R.  Strong  was  a  son  of  Hon.  Martin  Strong,  born  in 
Salisbury  in  1802,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1823.  He  located  at 
Rochester,  X.  Y.  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  in  1839  and  a 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  185 1  to  1858,  and  after- 
wards a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals.  He  died  in  Xew  York 
City,  1873. 

Cyrus  Swax  was  a  native  of  Stonnington,  studied  in  the  Litch- 
field Law  School  and  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1798.  He  settled  in 
Sharon  and  died  there  in  1835,  aged  65.  ((See  Sedgwick's  Ad- 
dress ) . 

Br;xjA:\rix  SwiET,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1802. 

Hkmax  Swift,  admitted  to  the  l'>:ir  in  1819  from  Kent. 

]\IiLTox  H.  Swift,  a  native  of  Kent,  admitted  to  the  liar  in  1838. 
Removed  to  Ottawa,  Illinois. 

Jacez  Swift.  Judge  Church  says  of  him,  "He  was  the  first  law- 
yer ever  settled  in  Salisbury  and  was  a  native  of  Kent.  He  built 
the  stone  house  of  Town  Hill.  Upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  he  joined  the  army  m  Boston  and  there  died." 

Gkorc.]'  E.  Taft,  l)orn  in  Sheffield,  Mass.  November  4th.  1854. 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1883  and  soon  after  located  at  Lmionville  in 
Hartford  County,  where  he  is  now  in  practice.  Has  been  a  member 
of  the  School  Board  there  and  Judge  of  Probate. 

Ror.KRT  S.  TiiARKx  was  born  in  Lebanon  in  1714  and  upon  the 
formation  of  the  County  in  175 1  was  in  practice  at  Xew  Alilford. 
He  died  January  9th,  1786.      (See  Boardman's  Sketches). 

Joiix  O.  TiiAVER  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1869  and  after 
practicing  a  short  time  in  Xew  Milford  he  removed  to  Meriden, 
Conn.,  where  he  is  now  in  practice.  He  served  four  years  in  the 
Civil  War,  1861,  and  in  1899  was  Judge  Advocate  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Connecticut  G.  A.  R. 


298  LiTCTirir;i,D  couxtv  BKxcTr  and  p.ar 

Jam  lis  Thompson  was  born  in  Woodbury.  ^larch  4,  1767,  gradu- 
ated from  Yale  College,  1789,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1791. 
He  settled  at  New  Durham,  N.  Y.  About  1800  he  left  his  profession 
and  entered  the  Episcopal  Ministry.     He  died  August  18,  1844. 

JuDSOx  B.  TnoMrsox.  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  181 1. 

HkzEkiah  Thompsox  was  born  in  New  Haven  in  1734.  studied 
law  in  Stratford,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  Litchfield  in  1763. 
He  located  in  Woodbury.  Died  May  1803.  "He  stood  well  as  a 
lawyer  and  magistrate,  and  was  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school."  6th 
Conn.  Reports. 

Martix  H.  Thomas,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1808  from  Salisbury. 

TuDSOX  B.  TiioMAS  was  in  1810  in  Colebrook.  Admitted  to  the 
Bar  in  1808  from  Salisbury, 

F.  R.  TiFFAXY,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1879. 

Georoi.;  Ton,  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1795  and  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1797. 

Oliver  A.  G.  Todd,  born  in  Plymouth  October  181 2,  admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1833,  practiced  law  in  Waterbury,  Litchfield,  New  'M\\- 
ford  and  Danbury  in  wliich  latter  city  he  died  August  14,  1886. 

David  Toi.max,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1792  from  \\'oodbury. 

L^RiAH  Tracy,  appointed  States  Attorney,  1794  to  1800.  He 
was  born  in  Franklin,  (now  Norwich),  Conn.,  February  2,  1755, 
and  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1778,  and  read  law  with  Ji-idge 
Reeve  at  Litchfield,  where  he  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1780,  and 
settled  in  that  town  where  he  rose  to  a  high  eminence  in  his  pro- 
fession. He  was  very  largely  engaged  in  chities  of  a  public  nature, 
and  often  represented  his  adopted  town  in  the  Legislature,  and  was 
Speaker  of  the  House  in  1793.  Was  a  representative  in  Congress 
from  1793  to  1796,  when  he  entered  the  Senate  and  was  a  member 
until  his  death  in  1807.  serving  part  of  the  time  as  President  pro 
tern.  He  died  at  Washington.  D.  C.  July  19,  1807,  and  was  the 
first  person  buried  in  the  Congressional  l)urying  ground. 

Amos  S.  Tkkat.  born  in  Bridgewater.  February  5.  1816.  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  1843.  practiced  in  Fairfield  County  and  died 
at  Bridge]:)ort  April  24,  1886. 

SKr..\ii  ]'..  Tkkat,  D.  1).,  born  in  ILirtford  Februarv  19,  1804, 
graduated  at  Yale  1824,  admitted  to  this  B>ar  in  1826.  Practiced  at 
East  Windsor  and  Penn  Yan.  New  York.  In  1835  lie  entered  the 
ministry  and  was  Secretary  of  the  American  IJoard  of  Commission- 
ers for  Foreign  Missions  manv  years.  Died  at  Boston,  ^larch  28th, 
1877. 


/f. 


/    . 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES  299 

Frank  H.  TurkixgT(.)X,  the  ])resent  Sheriff  of  the  County,  was 
born  in  Morris,  then  a  part  of  Litchfield,  June  ii,  1854.  Receiving 
a  common  school  education,  he  associated  with  his  father  in  an  ex- 
tensive cattle  and  stock  buying  business,  and  butchering  for  the 
wholesale  trade  at  East  Morris,  carrying  their  meats  mostly  by 
teams  to  Waterbury,  Conn.  He  was  very  much  interested  in  politi- 
cal aft'airs,  and  represented  his  town  in  the  Legislature  twice — al- 
though he  was  a  Republican  in  a  strong  Democratic  town.  In  1906 
he  was  elected  Sheriff".  He  is  also  a  farmer  on  a  large  scale,  ow-ning 
more  arable  land  which  he  successfully  cultivates  than  any  other 
person  in  Litchfield  County. 

Joiix  S.  TuRRiLL  was  1)()rn  Fcl)ruary  8,  1825,  attended  Law 
School  at  Balston  Springs,  N.  Y.  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1 85 1.  Located  in  New  Mil  ford,  enjoying  a  large  practice  until  his 
death,  July  19,  1889.  He  w^as  one  of  the  Committee  who  prepared 
the  Revision  of  the  Statutes  of  1875. 

Stkpiikx  Twixixr,,  graduated  at  Vale  College  in  1795.  was  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  in  I7()7.  located  at  Xew  Haven,  where  he  died  in 
1832.     He  was  Steward  of  \n\c  College  from  1819  to  1832. 

CiFARLKS  Tl-TTLE.  admitted  10  the  Bar  in  1856  from  North  Cole- 
brook. 

NoAii  \\'ai)I1a.ais,  a  native  of  Goshen,  studied  law  at  Litchfield 
Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  the  I'.ar  in  1793.  Removed  to 
Pennsvlvania  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  of  Luzerne  County,  Pa. 
in  1800. 

Albert  Wadiiams,  born  in  Massachusetts  June  19,  1819.  gradu- 
ated at  Norwich  L^niversit}',  \ermont.  and  was  admitted  to  the  New 
York  Bar.  Removed  to  Goshen  and  began  the  practice  of  law 
about  1865.     He  died  in  Goshen,  May  1884. 

GeokcI';  Wadswortii.  born  in  Litchfield,  was  admitted  to  this 
Bar  in  185 1.  He  located  in  Buff'alo,  N.  Y..  where  he  died  March  19, 
1907,  aged  yy. 

Frederick  T.  Wallace,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1844. 

Tiio:mas  f.  Wall,  born  in  Torrington,  February  19.  1879.  Grad- 
uated at  Yale  Law  School  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar.  June  26, 
1906.  Practices  in  Torrington.  and  he  writes  me  that  he  is  kept  very 
busy  between  law-book  agents  and  mercantile  collection  agencies. 

Arthur  D.  \\'arxer,  born  in  Southbury  August  2.  1848.  ad- 
mitted to  this  Bar  April  1872.  After  eleven  years  practice  at  West 
Cornwall  he  removed  to  Woodbury,  where  he  is  now  in  practice. 
He  was  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  this  County  one 
term  of  four  vears. 


300  LITCHFIELD  COU^■TV  BEXCII  AND  LAR 

DuXALiJ  J.  W'akxkr,  born  in  Salisbury  September  15.  1819,  was 
admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1843,  settled  at  Salisbury,  where  he  de- 
ceased ]\Iay  31,  1904.  He  was  Judge  of  the  District  Court  and 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  eight  years,  and  until  he  was  retired  by 
reason  of  Constitutional  limitation  of  age.  His  adress  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  Centenial  Celebration  in  Litchfield  1898.  was  exceed- 
ingl\-  interesting  and  a  considerable  portion  of  it  is  included  in  this 
com])ilation. 

DoxAi.i)  J.  \\'akxkk,  son  of  Donald  T.  Warner,  and  grandson  of 
Judg"e  Donald  AX'arner.  was  born  in  Salisbury  July  24.  1885.  Grad- 
uated at  Yale  College  in  1905.  and  from  the  Law  School  1908,  when 
he  was  admitted  to  this  Bar. 

L)oxAi.i)  T.  W'akxkr,  son  of  Judge  Donald  J.  Warner,  was  born 
in  Salisbury  December  15.  1850.  Was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1873. 
He  resides  in  Salisbury,  and  has  held  the  oflice  of  States  Attorney 
since  189^).  Tn  1902  he  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  Connecticut.  He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Senate 
in  1895  '^^'"1  ^897'  ii^  which  latter  year  he  was  chairman  of  the 
Judiciary  Committee. 

Lv:\rAx  F.  W^vrxlr.  a  native  of  Roxbury,  admitted  to  the  Bar 
in  1848  and  removed  west. 

]\LlTox  J.  Wakxkk  was  born  in  Salisbury,  graduated  from  Wil- 
liams College,  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  September.  1867.  and  located 
at  Waverly.  X.  Y.  Afterwards  removed  to  Santa  Fe.  X^ew  ^Mexico, 
wher  he  died. 

Thomas  G.  Water:max'.  a  native  of  Salisbury  studied  law  with 
Gen.  Elisha  vSterling  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1809.  He  be- 
came a  prominent  member  of  the  Bar  in  Binghamton.  X.  Y.,  where 
he  died  in  1861.     Author  of  Waterman's  Digests. 

Dour.LASS  Watsox,  born  ]\Ia}'  12,  1821  at  Canaan,  admitted  to 
the  Bar  in  1845. 

Daxikl  F.  Whi'.ster,  born  in  LitchfieUl  March  14,  18^3.  gradu- 
ated from  Dartmouth  College  in  1874  and  admitted  to  this  Bar  in 
1876.     Located  and  practiced  in  Waterbury  until  his  death  in  1896. 

FrkdKrick  C.  Wei'.ster,  born  in  Litchfield  October  17.  18^0. 
Graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1874  and  was  admitted  to  the  r>ar 
in  1876.  Practiced  law  in  Litchfield  a  short  time,  then  removed 
to  the  West.  He  resides  at  Missoula.  Montana,  of  which  city  he  has 
been  Max'or.  He  is  now  a  Judge  of  one  of  the  Districts  of  that 
State. 

GiDKox  H.  Welctt,  born  at  East  PTaddaiu.  Conn..  Seotember  22. 
1844.  (^iraduated  at  Yale  College  1868.  and  from  Yale  Law  School 
in   1870.  and  immediately  located  at  Torrington.  succeeding  the  late 


i"ki".i)i;ric  m.  Williams 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTKS 


301 


Henry  S.  Barbour.  Esq.  He  had  a  lucrative  practice,  and  held 
numerous  town  offices  and  represented  the  town  in  the  General  As 
sembly  in  1881  and  the  District  in  the  State  Senate  in  1897.  In  1897 
upon  the  appointment  of  Judge  Roraback  to  the  Superior  Court 
he  was  appointed  by  the  Governor,  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas,  which  action  the  Legislature  confirmed  for  another  term  of 
four  years,  and  is  now  (1907)  in  office.     Picture  on  page  141. 

Ralph  Wells,  admitted  in  1813  from  Hartford. 

Fraxcis  A\\  \\']:sskLLS,  admitted  in   1870.     Resides  in  Omaha, 
Neb. 

Samuel  WET:\roRE,  admitted  in  1803. 

N.  WetmorE,  admitted  in  1808. 

Leverette  W.  W'essells 
was  born  in  Litchfield  in 
1819.  Held  the  office  of 
Sheriff  for  twelve  years 
from  1854  to  1866.  succeed- 
ing Hon.  Albert  Sedgwick, 
imder  whom  he  was  a  Dep- 
uty Sheriff'  for  nine  years. 
Was  Post  Master  of  Litch- 
field. 1850  to  1854.  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  General 
Assemlily  iu  1879  and  again 
in  1887,  was  Quarter  Mas- 
ter General  of  the  State  in 
1879  and  1880.  In  1862  he 
was  commissioned  a  Col- 
onel by  Governor  Bucking- 
ham and  by  his  skillful 
•,  management  organized  the 

J  i9tli     Infantry     Regiment, 

afterwards  the  2nd  Connec- 
ticut Heavy  Artillery.  This  was  a  Litchfield  County  Regiment  and 
won  a  leading  record  for  its  valor  in  the  war  of  the  Rebellion.  Col- 
onel Wessells  resigned  his  commission  by  reason  of  ill  health  in  1863 
and  was  immediately  appointed  Provost  Marshall  of  the  Fourtii 
District  of  Connecticut  which  office  he  held  until  the  close  of  the 
Rebellion.  "To  his  old  friends  in  the  Commonwealth  and  beyond 
its  limits  the  thought  that  they  are  to  see  his  face  no  more  must 
needs  be  a  sad  one :  but  to  him  the  end  came  as  a  happy  release  from 
the  house  of  pain.  He  had  lived  beyond  all  expectation  and  filled 
the  measure  of  his  years,  had  done  a  man's  work  in  the  world,  and 
long  since  assured  for  himself  an  honorable  place  in  the  remembrance 
of  his  town  and  State."     He  died  at  Dover,  Del.  April  4th.  1895. 


302  LITCIII'IKLD  COL'XTV  BKXCK  AND  DAR 

George  Wiieatox,  of  Cornwall, — The  following-  is  the  notice  of 
his  death  from  a  county  newspaper : 

"George  Wheaton,  Esq.,  the  oldest  and  one  of  the  most  respected 
membero  of  the  Litchfield  Count}-  ISar,  died  at  his  residence  in  Corn- 
wall, on  Friday  evening-,  Xov.  24th,  1865.  He  was  born  in  East 
Haven  in  1790,  and  was,  therefore,  in  his  76th  year.  He  removed 
to  Salisbury  about  1810  where  he  studied  law  with  Judge  Church, 
then  a  practicing  lawyer.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1813,  when 
he  made  Cornwall  his  place  of  residence.  Mr.  Wheaton  was  a  well- 
read,  exact  lawyer,  a  prudent  business  man,  and  a  close  reasoner. 
He  was  a  valuable  man  in  town  affairs,  and  enjoyed  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  had  long  been  a  member  of 
the  Congregational  Church,  and  he  was  known  and  beloved  as  a 
consistent  Christian.  His  funeral  was  attended  at  Cornwall  last 
Sunday  by  a  large  number  of  people,  among  whom  were  many  of 
the  prominent  members  of  the  Litchfield  and  Fairfield  County  Bars." 

Joshua  Wiutxkv. — He  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Norfolk 
coming  there  from  Canaan.  He  was  a  lawyer  and  was  first  King's 
Attorney  of  the  new  County  in  1751,  appointed  thereto  l)y  the  new 
County  Court.  He  was  very  prominent  in  town  afifairs  In  Norfolk 
until  about  1763  when  it  is'  said  that  he  removed  back  to  Canaan. 
1  suppose  him  to  have  been  the  same  Joshua  \\'hitne\"  who  served 
from  Canaan  all  through  the  Revolution  and  was  a  "Leftenant." 

SoLoM(jx  W'lLiTXEv,  from  Canaan  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1763. 

Cttari.es  \\'iiiTTi,ESEv,  born  in  Salisl)ury,  graduated  from  \\\\- 
liams  College  in  1840,  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  T844.  Began  practice 
in  Cheshire,  removed  to  ^^liddletown  and  in  T855  to  Hartford,  Conn. 
Was  States  Attorney  for  [Middlesex  Countv  for  six  years.  Was 
Captain  of  Campan\-  I  22nd  Conn.  A'ols.  He  died  in  Alexandria, 
A'a.,  in  1874. 

Ei.isii A  WiriTTT.ESEv,  a  native  of  Washington,  was  admitted  to 
this  liar  in  1781  and  soon  removed  to  the  Connecticut  Reserve.  In 
1823  he  was  elected  member  of  Congress  which  position  he  held  for 
eighteen  years.  In  1841  he  was  apjDointed  Auditor  of  the  Treasury 
for  the  Post  Office  Dei)artment  and  in  t84(j  first  Comptroller  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States. 

Roi.ER  WiiiTTEESEv.  born  in  Xewington,  T7r)7,  graduated  from 
Yale  in  1787;  studied  at  the  Litchfield  I^aw  School  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Bar  in  1790.  He  practiced  at  Southington  and  died 
there  October  5,  1844. 

Thomas  T.  Whit  ri.i:sEv,  born  in  i7t)4-  graduated  from  Yale 
College  in  1817;  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  T820.  He  located  in  Dan- 
burv.  He  was  representative  in  Congress  in  1827  and  T829  and 
died  in  ]868. 


GUNKKXUR    OLIVER    WOLCOTT 


BIOGRAPHICAL  XOTES  303 

Edavix  a.  WiiiTK,  born  in  Cornwall,  graduated  from  W'eslevan 
University;  admitted  to  this  Bar  in   1882.     Removed  to  the   State 
of  New  York  and  after  a  practice  of  a  few  years  abandoned  the  law. 
and  became  an  Episcopal  Clergyman.    He  is  now  in  Bloomfield.  X'.  J. 
He  is  the  author  of  a  standard  work  on  Episcopal  law  and  is  en 
gaged  in  codifying  the  Church  laws  of  the  State  of  Xew  Jersey. 

HuuKRT  W'lij.iA.MS  was  born  in  Salisbury.  September  10,  1853. 
Graduated  from  Columbia  Law  School  in  1873:  was  admitted  to  the 
Bar  in  1875  and  resided  in  Lakeville.  his  native  tow-n.  He  was 
Post  blaster  in  that  village  a  number  of  _\ears.  He  died  suddenly 
September  24.   1906. 

Frkdekic  ]\I.  W'ili.ia.als.  born  in  Washington,  Conn.,  Xovember 
27.  1862.  He  prepared  for  college  at  the  Upson  School  in  Xew 
Preston  and  graduated  from  the  Yale  Law  School  in  1887;  also 
studying  with  Hon.  Simeon  E.  Baldwin.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
Xew  Haven  Bar  in  1887  and  later  moved  to  X"ew  Milford.  He  has 
been  very  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  his  town  and  is  a  most  etlicient 
P'rosecuting  Agent  for  Litchfield  County. 

\\'ii.i.iam:  G.  W'ii.tjams.  born  in  Stockbridgc,  [Mass..  Admitted 
to  this  Bar  in  1800  and  located  at  Sharon  until  i8og  when  he  re- 
moved to  Xew  Hartford,  where  he  died  in  1838.  aged  51;. 

Tiio:mas  A\'ir,cox,  admitted  in  1799  from  Canaan. 

AxDRKw  B.  A\'iLSux.  admitted  in  1865  from  Cornwall.  Practiced 
a  short  time  at  Xewtown  and  removed  to  Bridgeport,  where  he  en- 
gaged in  manufacturing. 

Gi;X.  ()i.i\i:r  Wolcott  was  the  first  Sheriff  of  the  County,  hold- 
ing the  office  for  more  than  twenty  _\ears.  (See  articles  on  Signers 
of  the  Declaration  on  page  174.J 

OlinER  Wolcott,  Jr.,  L.  L.  D.  was  born  in  Litchfield  January 
II.  1760.  and  was  the  son  of  ( )liver  W'olcott,  the  Signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  pre- 
pared for  antl  entered  Yale  College,  but  by  reason  of  taking  fre- 
quent vacations  to  go  into  the  Revolutionary  Army,  did  not  gradu- 
ate till  1779.  He  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1781.  His  wdiole 
life  was  devoted  to  the  public  service  and  aft'airs.  He  was  suc- 
cessively Comptroller  of  this  State.  Auditor  and  Secretary  of  the 
United  States  Treasur\-.  Judge  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court, 
President  of  the  Bank  of  America,  President  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  Connecticut,  and  Governor  of  his  native  State  from 
1817  to  1827.  He  was  one  of  the  most  illustrious  statesmen  of  the 
early  days  of  the  Republic,  the  intimate  friend  and  adviser  of  Wash- 
ington, Adams  and  Hamilton  :  and  for  some  time  previous  to  his 
decease  in  X'ew  York.  June  2,  1833.  ^''^  ^^'^^^  the  last  surviving  mem- 
ber of  Washington's  cabinet.  The  departure  of  few  men  from  the 
world  ever  produced  a  more  deep  and  general  feeling  of  sorrow. 


304  LlTClll-JiaD  COUNTY  BKXCII  AND  BAR 

Dami;i,  Wood,  admitted  in  1799  from  Sliaron. 

John  Woodbridgk,  Jr.,  admitted  in  1851  from  Xew  Hartford. 

EzKKii;i.  Woodruff,  a  native  of  Farmington,  graduated  from 
Yale  in  1779  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1781.  He  located  at 
Middletown  and  in  1789  removed  from  the  State, 

Georgk  C.  Woodruff  was  born  on  the  first  day  of  December, 
1805  in  Litchfield  in  that  part  of  the  town  which  is  now  the  town 
of  Morris.  He  was  the  eldest  son  of  Maj.  Gen.  Morris  .Woodruft, 
who  was  for  11  years  a  Judge  of  the  County  Court.  George  C. 
graduated  at  Yale  in  1825,  studied  law  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School 
under  Judge  Gould  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1827.  He  soon 
located  in  Litchfield  w'here  he  resided  until  his  death  on  the  21st 
day  of  November,  1885.  He  took  a  leading  position  at  the  Bar  of 
Litchfield  County,  gradually  rising  until  he  became  its  acknowledged 
head  and  was  chairman  of  the  Bar  Association  for  many  years.  In 
his  early  life  he  was  daily  thrown  into  conflict  with  those  giants  of 
the  profession — the  two  Churches,  Huntington,  Bacon,  Smith  and 
others  of  their  able  contemporaries.  He  held  almost  every  oftice  of 
the  town  and  county — justice  of  the  peace,  grand  juror,  postmaster, 
town  treasurer,  town  clerk,  bank  director  and  president,  clerk  of  the 
superior  court.  Colonel  in  the  Militia,  member  and  clerk  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  judge  of  probate,  member  of  the  Thirty-Seventh 
Congress — the  duties  of  each  in  turn  performed  with  that  rigid  ex- 
actness and  scrupulous  integrity  which  marks  the  perfect  man.  To 
him  the  state  at  large  owes  many  of  the  best  features  of  the  revision 
of  our  statutes  adopted  in  1875.  As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  WoodrufT  was 
prominent  in  those  branches  where  certainty  is  possible.  It  was  in 
the  trial  of  (ptestions  of  law,  the  dryer  and  more  abstruse  the  better 
that  his  most  consummate  skill  was  shown.  In  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Errors  not  infrequently  his  entire  argument  was  written  out  with 
the  most  ])ainstaking"  care. 

Jn  whatever  relation  of  life  one  looks  at  him  as  citizen,  as  neigh- 
bor, in  ]orivate  life  or  ]:)ublic  station,  as  counsellor  or  judge  he  was 
one  of  the  best  products  of  our  American  civilization. 

(Condensed  from  obituary  in  54,  Conn.  Report). 

Gkorc.i'.  M.  WY)0DRuFF  was  a  son  of-  Hon.  George  C.  Woodruff 
of  Litchfield  and  enjoys  the  distinction  of  being,  through  his  father 
and  mother,  a  member  of  the  only  two  families  in  the  county  who 
have  for  three  successive  generations  practiced  before  its  courts, 
in  fact  it  might  ])e  said  for  four  generations  as  Mr.  Woodruff's 
grandfather  on  one  side  was  countv  judge  and  on  the  other  sheriff. 
He  was  born  in  Litchfield.  1836  and  has  l:)een  extremely  active  in 
state  as  well  as  town  afi'airs.  He  pre])ared  for  college  at  Phillips 
Academy,  Andover,  graduated  at  Yale  in  1857.  the  Harvard  Law 
School  in  1859  and  was  admitted  to  the  Litchfield  I'ar  in  the  same 
year.     He  was  in  the  Legislature  in   1863,   1865  and   1872.  serving 


Bi()C.K.\riiic.\r,  NOTES  305 

on  the  Judiciary  Committee  the  first  two  terms.  He  was  town  treas- 
urer 1866  to  iyo6  and  jud^i2:e  of  Probate  since  1868  with  the  ex- 
ception of  one  }ear.  He  was  one  of  the  state  raih'oad  commissioners 
from  1874  to  i8y7  and  chairman  of  the  Board  from  1875.  Mr. 
Woo(h-utt  was  commissioner  for  this  state  to  the  Universal  Ex- 
position at  Hamburg-  in  1863  and  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of 
education  from  1865  to  1877.  He  is  an  active  member  and  Deacon 
in  the  Congregational  cliurch  and  has  been  president  of  the  Savings 
Society  since  1885.  He  is  also  president  of  the  First  National  Bank 
and   \'ice- 1 'resident  of  the  Colonial  Trust  Company  of  W'aterbury. 

Ja:\i1':s  I'.  W'ooDiui'i'  is  a  son  of  Hon.  George  ^\.  W'oodrutt.  horn 
in  Lritchheld  October  30,  1868,  graduated  from  Amherst  College  in 
1891  aufl  from  Vale  Law  School  in  i8()3  and  was  admitted  to  this 
Bar  in  18(^3.  Resides  and  ])ractices  at  Litchfield  in  company  with 
h.is  father.     He  represented  his  town  in  the  Legislature  of  i8gc)-i(;o3. 

Ho\.  T^i;\vis  !').  W'ooDKri'F.  L.  L.  D..  son  of  Gen.  Morris  W'ood- 
rtiff  and  brother  of  Hon.  Georg-e  C.  Woodrufif,  was  born  in  Litch- 
field (South  Farms)  June  19,  1809.  Preparing"  for  College  at  the 
then  noted  Morris  Academy,  he  graduated  with  high  honors  from 
Yale  Colleg'e  in  1830.  In  the  fall  of  that  year  he  entered  the  Litch- 
field Law  School,  where  under  the  instruction  of  Judge  Gould,  then 
at  its  head,  lie  laid  the  foundation  of  the  scholarly  learning-  which 
secured  his  success  at  the  Bar  and  so  distingtiished  his  judicial 
career.  ( )n  com])leting-  his  sttulies  in  that  school  he  was  admitted 
to  the  liar  of  Connecticut  in  1832.  In  October  of  that  year  he  re- 
moved to  the  cit\  of  Xew  York,  and  after  a  successful  practice  at 
the  Bar  he  was,  in  1850,  called  to  the  B)ench,  and  thereafter  held 
successively  the  offices  of  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  I'leas. 
Superior  Court,  (.'ourt  of  Ap])eals.  and  L'nited  States  Circuit  Court 
for  the  Second  Judicial  Circuit,  which  latter  position  he  filled  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  A  devoted  lover  of  his  native  State  it  was 
especially  pleasing-  to  him  that  Connecticut  was  a  part  of  his  Judi- 
cial District,  maintaining  a  residence  in  Litchfield  a  ])ortion  of  the 
}ear  and  he  died  at  his  home  in  that  place  Septeml)er  to.  1875, 
esteemed,  revered  and  beloved  by  all  who  new  him.  His  great 
learning-,  his  remarkable  power  of  analysis,  and  his  deep  discern- 
ment and  excellent  judgment,  reinforced  by  habits  of  profound 
study  and  indefatigable  industry,  and  his  sterling  integrity  insured 
his  high  re])utation  on  the  B>ench. 

Dignified,  in  his  bearing,  he  was  in  the  family  circle  tender  and 
afifectionate,  everywhere  generous,  kind  and  helpful.  Devoted  to 
his  home  jo\'s,  genial  and  cordial,  he  was  the  delight  of  the  social 
circle,  and  his  loving  welcome,  hos])itable  l^oard  and  ever  open  door, 
kept  warm  hearts  constantlv  about  him. 

Tt  was  said  of  him: — "He  went  to  the  very  bottom  of  every  sub- 
ject with  which  he  undertook  to  deal.  He  cared  not  for  the  mul- 
tiplicity ()f  details,  they  never  clogged  his  percepticMi  of  a  general 


3o6  LITCIIFIICLD  COUXTV  BENCH  AND  DAR 

bearing,  and  never  one  of  them  was  deprived  of  the  exact  degree 
of  weight  to  which  it  was  relatively  entitled.  Law  was  to  him  what 
I\Iusic  or  Art  is  to  some  natures,  it  engrossed  him,  and  was  a  prov- 
ince in  which  he  moved  a  King  and  a  blaster." 

In  i860.  Columbia  College  of  New  York  conferred  upon  him 
the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

He  married  a  daughter  of  Chief  Justice  Hornblower  of  New 
lersev.  Of  his  three  "children,  the  eldest,  Charles  H.  Woodruff, 
adopted  his  father's  profession,  practicing  in  New  York  and  main- 
taining as  a  summer  home  his  father's  country  residence ;  and  he 
also  has  contributed  two  sons,  Lewis  li.  and  Frederick  S.,  to  the 
Bar  of  New  York. 

He  purchased  the  Judge  Tapping  Reeve  residence  in  Litchfield 
for  his  summer  home.  His  portrait  appears  on  page  206  in  con- 
nection with  the  Law  School. 

Morris  ^^'ooDRUl'f  was  for  many  years  one  of  the  Judges  of  the 
Countv  Court,  and  apparently  a  standing  committee  for  the  lay-out 
of  higiiwavs  and  the  transaction  of  matters  of  a  similar  nature.  He 
was  a  ]\Iajor  General  of  the  State  Militia  and  held  very  many  town 
and  county  public  offices.  His  two  sons.  George  C.  and  Lewis  B. 
became  Attorneys  of  the  highest  standing,  while  his  only  daughter 
was  the  esteemed  wife  of  the  late  Chief  Justice  Seymour.  He  was 
born  in  Litchfield  in  1777  and  died  in  1841. 

PiTKix  CoAVLES  Wright  was  born  in  Canaan  May  1835.  Grad- 
uated at  Williams  in  1852  and  admitted  to  practice  in  1855.  He  re- 
moved to  Iowa.  He  was  the  Grand  High  Priest  of  Iowa  in  1868-9. 
He  died  at  Somcrville,  Tenn.  September  15th,  1896. 

JoHX  F.  \\'yxxe;,  l)orn  at  Sandisfield.  Mass..  i860.  Admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1881.  Settled  at  Union ville  in  the  town  of  Farming- 
ton  which  town  he  represented  in  the  Legislature  in  1886.  Sub- 
sequently he  removed  to  New  Haven  where  he  is  now  in  practice. 

Jmrx  1).  \.\]X.  Sheriff'  of  the  County  from  1878  to  1881.  He 
was  born  in  Canaan  in  182O.  At  the  close  of  his  term  of  office  he 
resided  in  \\'insted  and  was  employed  as  a  commercial  traveler.  He 
removed  to  Hartford,  and  retired  from  active  business  pursuits. 
He  died  in  Hartford  A])ril  24.  1905. 


LIGANS 


UAY  IT  I'l.i'.ASi:  Til]':  COURT. 


MAY  IT  PLEASE  THE  COURT 


In  the  preparation  of  this  volume  the  compiler  has  collected  many 
items  not  exactly  apropos  to  the  general  scheme  of  the  book.  They 
are,  however,  papers  and  documents  of  such  general  interest  that 
they  should  be  preserved,  and  1  have  printed  them  herein  under  an 
old  law  term,  that  they  may  be  available  at  some  future  time.  I 
have  not  aimed  at  any  particular  arrangement,  and  the  reader  if  he 
is  a  lawyer,  may  demur  to  them,  plead  in  abatement,  move  to  strike 
out,  erase,  or  for  a  more  particular  statement,  just  as  he  pleases. 
There  will  be  no  charge  beyond  the  price  of  the  book  whether  he 
wins  or  loses  his  motion:  if  he  is  a  layman  he  may  omit  them  alto- 
gether. I  have  included  a  number  of  pictures  which  may  add  to 
the  interest  of  the  book. 


"Tliis  world  is  Init  a  fleeting  show. 
And  soon  grim  death  will  jerk  us 

So  let's  be  ha]Ji)y  as  we  go, 
.\nd  all  enjii\-  the  circus." 


l;X-(".0\'.    CJIAKLKS    n.    AXDKKWS. 

In  the  earlier  ])rei)aration  of  this  v()lume  I  was  promised  an 
original  article  by  the  late  Hon.  Charles  1j.  Andrews,  but  his  lament- 
ed decease  prevented  me  from  obtaining  one  in  his  own  writing.  (Jf 
course  those  who  read  the  Connecticut  Reports  are  familiar  with  his 
legal  opinions  as  found  in  those  Reports.  Judge  Andrews  v.as, 
however,  a  writer  on  many  other  subjects  besides  legal  opinions. 
The  following  is  an  address  which  he  delivered,  which  will  serve  to 
show  his  style  of  thought  and  composition,  and  is  also  a  review  of 
many  of  the  matters  contained  in  this  volume.  He  gave  it  to  me 
as  his  contribution  to  one  of  our  lianquets. 


310  I.lTClll'lKl.D  COU.VTV  BENCH  AND  IJAR 


AN  ADDRESS  BY  EX.  GOVERNOR 
CHARLES  B.  ANDREWS 

Vuu  i^'ivc  it,  Mr.  J 'resident,  as  the  result  (if  vour  rejections,  that 
tlie  jucHcial  power  is  tlie  hii^hest  in  the  trinity  of  the  g-overnmental 
powers.  1  apprehend  that  most  thoughtful  ])ersons  will  agree  with 
\ini  for  the  reasons  you  have  given.  In  every  government  of  laws, 
the  courts  hold  the  most  important  ])lacc.  The  legislature  may  be 
nominally  higher  than  the  judiciarx  :  hut  in  the  actual  experience 
of  life,  the  courts  touch  the  citizen  more  frequently  and  more  nearly, 
tlian  the  law-making  power.  The  legislature  ordinarily  does  no  more 
than  make  rules  in  the  abstract ;  the  courts  ai)ply  them  to  concrete 
cases.  To  the  parties  in  any  given  case,  that  seems  only  to  be  the 
law,  which  the  court  decides  to  be  law,  for  the  reason  that  the  court 
must  ])ass  upon  the  facts,  as  well  as  interi)ret  th'>  rule  made  by  the 
legislature. 

Jn  one  of  those  fer\id  hursts  of  el()(|uence.  for  which  Mr.  ]vufus 
Choate  was  so  widcl_\-  known,  he  exclaimed:  "Let  us  repose  secure 
imder  the  shadow  of  a  learned,  impartial  and  trusted  judiciary,  and 
we  need  no  more.  Given  that,  and  it  matters  little  what  constitution 
you  have,  or  who  makes  the  laws." 

'J'hinking  only  of  that  former  time,  wlien  no  one  living  was  con- 
nected with  the  courts,  1  cherish  the  belief  that  the  judiciary  of  Con- 
necticut has  measuraljly  fulfilled  for  the  people  of  that  state,  such  an 
liigh  idea.  To  some  extent,  doubtless,  this  is  dne  to  the  fact  that 
there  ha.->  been  no  great  city  in  the  state,  so  that  the  questions,  vex- 
atious and  dangerous,  liable  to  rise  from  a  vast,  divergent  and  largely 
unlearned  jKipulation  have  never  brought  disturbance  into  the  courts. 
rerha])s,  also,  the  cities  of  Xew  York  on  the  one  side,  and  Boston 
(.n  the  other,  h;i\-e  drawn  from  us  other  sources  of  trouble.  In  an- 
otlicr  degree  good  fortune  has  come  from  tlie  character  of  its  people. 
Connecticut  was  a  i'uritan  colony,  even  more  so  than  Massachusetts. 
It  has  always  been  a  I'uritan  state.  'J"he  I'uritan,  with  all  his  wil- 
fulness, his  self-assertion,  his  theologv  and  his  dogmatism,  was  a 
conser\ati\e  citizen.  l\es])ect  for  the  powers  that  be  was  a  part  of 
Ills  creed.  To  l)e  sure,  he  intended  to  have  the  ])owers  on  his  side 
most  of  the  time,  and  never  scrui)led  to  cpiarrel  with  them  if  they 
were  not :  but  notwithstanding,  lie  had  the  thrifty  habit  of  economy: 
and  the  money-making  man  is  compelled  to  have  a  respect  for  law: 
and  tliis  res])ect  for  the  law  has  continued  to  this  day  to  be  a  char- 
acter n\  the  peo])le  of  tlie  state.  Hut  mainl}-  the  result  has  come 
from  tlu'  judiciary  itself.  In  the  original  frame  of  government  of 
that  stale  all  judicial  ])ower  was  exercised  by  the  legislature.  ^I'he 
legislature  continued   to  hear  cases  on   ajjjjcal   imtil   the  year    17S4. 


CHART.KS    r..    AXIIRKAVS,   C.    J. 


GU\-.    ANDREW  S    ADDRESS  3II 

In  that  year  it  was  enacted  that  the  Lieutenant  Governor  and  the 
Council  should  constitute  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors.  In  1793 
the  Governor  was  added  to  the  court,  and  made  the  presiding  judge. 
Eight  members  were  necessary  to  form  a  quoruiu.  It  was  soon  the 
subject  of  complaiiU.  tliat  tlie  members  of  this  court  were  chosen 
with  reference  to  their  qualifications  as  legislators  rather  than  as 
judges.  In  1806  an  act  was  passed  which  transferred  all  the  judicial 
power  of  the  Governor  and  Council  to  the  then  Superior  Court,  and 
it  was  made  the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors.  That  was  the  origin  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Errors  as  it  now  exists.  Jesse  Root  was  at 
that  time  Chief  Justice.  Including  its  then  members,  and  all  who 
have  since  been  a|)p()inted,  there  have  been  forty-four  niem1>ers  of 
that  court.  Thirteen  of  its  deceased  members  have  been  Chief 
Justices — Jesse  Root.  Stei)hen  ?*lix  ^Mitchell.  Ta])ping  Reeve.  Zep- 
lianiah  Swift,  Stephen  Titus  Hosmer,  David  Daggett,  Thomas  Scott 
Williams,  Samuel  Church,  Kenry  ^Nlatson  \\'aite,  William  Lucius 
Storrs.  Joel  Hinman,  Thomas  Belden  Butler  and  (  )i;igen  Starrs 
Seymour. 

These  were  notable  men  in  their  day.  and  came  up  to  the  full 
standard  of  being  learned,  impartial  and  trusted.  The  memory  of 
every  one  of  them  is  cherished  b\-  the  peojjle  of  Connecticut  with 
affectionate  pride  and  veneration.  They  were  no  more  than  a  fair 
indication  of  the  other  members  of  the  judges.  It  is  little  wonder, 
then,  that  the  people  of  that  state  have  re])osed  secure  under  the 
shadow  of  their  own  trusted  magistrac}'.  Xor  is  it  a  wonder  that 
the  court  held  a  creditable  ])lace  among  other  like  com-ts  in  the  nation. 

Of  the  individual  character  of  these  and  other  of  the  judges,  and 
of  the  later  court,  others  can  .>peak  much  better  than  myself. 

Prior  to  i8i(),  all  the  judges  were  appointed  annually.  There 
was  a  statute  which  ])rovided  that  the  judges  should  hold  oHice  dur- 
ing the  pleasure  of  the  legislature  :  l)ut  the  legislature  continued  to 
manifest  its  ])leasure  by  annual  elections,  until  the  adoption  of  the 
constitution,  in  1818.  By  that  constitution  the  judges  of  the  Su- 
])reme  and  Superior  Courts  were  to  hold  ollice  during  good  behavior, 
subject  to  impeachment  and  to  be  removed  by  advice  of  two-thirds 
of  each  house  of  the  general  assemlily.  Another  clause  of  the  con- 
stitution declared  that  no  judge  or  justice  of  the  peace  should  be 
capable  of  holding  oHice  after  he  arrived  at  seventv  years  of  age. 
These  two  provisions  of  the  constitution  have  given  rise  to  the  sus- 
picion that  in  Connecticut  a  man  cannot  behave  well  as  a  judicial 
officer  after  he  is  seventv  vears  old. 

In  1855  there  was  a  change  by  which  the  judicial  term  was  made 
eight  years.  The  legislature  has  always  elected  all  judges.  An- 
other change  in  1880.  has  so  made  it  that  the  legislature  elects  the 
judges  upon  the  nomination  of  the  Governor. 

In  the  general  field  of  law.  the  state  of  C<innecticut  deserves  at 
least  a  passing-  notice.  Everv  lawyer  in  the  country  has  heard  of 
the  Litchfield  Law  School.     More  than  to  any  other,  and  perhaps 


312  J.l  Tflll-IKI.I)  COL'NTY  JUvXCll   AM)   |:AR 

more  than  to  all  other  agencies,  it  is  owinq-  to  that  law  school,  that 
the  law  in  these  L'nited  States  has  so  much  uniformity,  consistency 
and  symmetry  as  it  has.  That  school  was  founded  by  Tapi)ing- 
Reeve  in  1784.  When  Mr.  Reeve  became  a  judge  of  the  Superior 
Court,  in  i/cSy.  he  associated  with  himself  James  Gould  as  a  teacher. 
'Jdiey  continued  the  school  together  till  1820.  Judge  Reeve  died  in 
1822.  Judge  Gould  continued  it  till  1833.  During  its  existence 
there  were  educated  nearly  two  thousand  young  men.  coming  from 
every  one  of  the  then  states.  Among  the  nuniber  were  those  who 
afterward  became  judges,  chief  justices  and  prominent  lawyers  and 
statesmen  in  most  of  the  states — Chief  Justice  Baldwin,  of  Georgia; 
John  C.  Calhoun;  John  M.  Clayton,  of  Deleware  ;  Daniel  S.  Dick- 
inson, of  Xew  ^'(jrk  ;  Levi  \\'oodbur\-.  of  Maine;  Theron  ]\Ietcalf. 
of  Afassachusetts  ;  William  Halstead.  of  Xew  Jersey;  Washington 
Toe.  and  very  many  others. 

The  earliest  volume  of  reports  of  decided  cases  published  in 
America  was  in  Connecticut.  l)y  Jt])hraim  Kirby.  at  Litchfield,  in 
1789.  It  has  erroneously  been  said,  that  the  tirst  volume  of  Dal- 
lo's  reports  was  the  earliest.  Dallo's  first  volume  was  not  ]mblishetl 
until    T790. 

(  )f  Ta])ping  Reeve  I  should  speak  a  little  more.  He  was  much 
more  than  an  ordinar\-  man.  He  was  born  at  Lrookhaven,  L.  I.,  in 
1744;  graduated  at  i'rinceton  in  I7'')3.  He  studied  law  with  Jesse 
Root,  at  Hartford;  settled  at  Litchfield  in  1772,  and  began  his  law 
teaching  in  1784.  He  was  a  born  teacher.  Every  one  of  the  pupils 
who  came  under  liis  instruction  became  at  once  ins]:)ired  vrith  a  love 
of  stud  v.  with  the  grandeur  of  the  science  and  the  dignity  of  the  pro- 
fessi(jn.  Jesse  Root,  who  was  the  instructor  of  Judge  Reeve,  was 
liimself  a  distinguished  man.  He  was  born  in  Coventry.  Conn. ; 
gi"aduated  at  rrinceton.  in  175^).  He  was  a  preacher  until  I7'>.v 
when  he  became  a  la\\\er  in  Hartford.  He  raised  a  company  for 
the  army  and  became  a  colonel.  Pie  was  a  member  of  the  Conti- 
ricntal  Congress  for  fcnu"  years.  He  was  a  judge  of  the  Superior 
Court  after  1788.  He  ])ublished  two  volumes  of  reports.  Another 
Chief  Ju>tice  was  Zei)haniah  Swift,  who  was  the  author  of  Swift's 
Digest.  The  older  lawyers  in  all  those  states,  which  founded  their 
law  u])on  the  common  law.  have  doubtless  heard  of  this  book.  It 
was  exceedingly  valuable  as  an  introductory  l)Ook  for  beginners, 
and  an  excellent  hand-book  for  professional  work. 

'i"he  work  of  the  court  in  ConnecticiU  is  recorded  in  the  volume 
of  rei)orts  which  I  have  mentioned,  in  five  volumes  of  Day's  Reports, 
and  in  fifty-seven  volumes  of  Connecticut  Re]XM-ts.  In  them  there 
are  no  startling  cases.  Thev  record  the  litigated  cases  of  a  ])eoi)le 
usually  hap])_\-,  and  intent  on  the  arts  of  i)eace  ;  but  I  feel  sure  that 
they  teach  constantly  the  principles  of  that  science  of  which  Lord 
I^-skine  said  :  "They  are  founded  in  the  charities  of  religion,  in  the 
])hiloso])hy  of  nattu-e.  in  the  truths  of  history,  and  in  the  experience 
of  common  life." 


n.   WILLIAMS    ARCL'.MLXT  3I3 

A  DEMURRER 

AX  ARGLMEXT  OX  A  DEMURRER. 

Argument  of  Hubert  Williams,  Esq.,  in  the  case  of  Arthur  Good- 
man vs.  The  Town  of  Salisbury,  tried  in  the  court  of  Common  Pleas 
before  Hon.  .\rthur  D.  Warner,  Judg-e. 

The  lease  ran  in  the  name  of  Arthur  (joodman,  a.g-ent  for  the 
Kickai)(JO  Indian  Company.  A  plea  in  abatement  was  filed  on  the 
claim  that  the  suit  should  have  been  in  the  name  of  the  real  party, 
instead  of  the  agent.  To  this  plea  in  abatement  the  plaintitt  hied  a 
demurrer. 

Mu.  \\'iLLL\-MS:  If  the  Court  please,  I  a])pear  in  behalf  of  the 
plea  in  abatement  and  against  the  demurrer.  This  is  a  demurrer 
to  a  plea  in  abatement  in  the  case  nominally  of  Arthur  Goodman 
against  The  I'own  of  Salisbury,  but  actually  of  the  Kickapoo  Imlian 
i\ledicine  C<jmpany  against  said  town. 

It  would  l)e  a  waste  of  words  for  me  to  tell  \our  Honor  that  I 
am  like  necessity — that  I  know  no  'aw.  There  are,  however,  a  few 
facts  in  relation  to  this  dennu'rer  whicli  I  would  like  to  present  to 
the  Ct)urt.  And  in  ])assing,  I  would  like  to  ask  your  Honor  what 
you  are  here  for?  .\s  T  miderstand  it,  I  am  here  to  give  your  Honor 
the  facts,  and  \(iu  are  here  to  a])])ly  the  law  to  those  facts.  It 
woidd  be  presumptions  in  me  to  attempt  to  instruct  \-our  Honor  as  to 
what  the  law  is,  because  if  _\-ou  don't  know,  you  t)uglit  not  to  be 
here,  and  I  assume  that  because  you  are  here,  you  do  know  the 
v.hole  law. 

Coming  back  to  the  ([uestion  at  issue  in  this  case,  what  are  the 
real  facts?  In  order  to  obtain  a  ])r()])er  comprehension  of  the  case 
it  will  be  necessary  to  begin  our  recital  of  facts  back  in  the  dawn 
of  tradition,  and  I  will  Ix'gin  at  the  time  when  the  great  Creator 
placed  our  common  forefather.  Adam,  in  a  dee])  sleep  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden,  and  from  his  side  drew  forth  and  fashioned  that  which 
has  ever  since  been  the  solace  and  joy  of  mankind  in  all  ages, — 
\\'(  )M  AX.  l)ut,  after  all.  Eve  was  only  a  side  issue,  and  that  is  all 
I  am  in  this  case. 

Taking  up  now  the  lease,  for  the  breach  of  which  this  action 
is  instituted,  and  examining  it  carefully,  your  Honor  will  see  that 
it  gives  to  the  Kickapoo  Indian  Medicine  Company  the  exclusive 
use  of  the  town  hall  of  Salisbiu-y  with  all  its  appurtenances  for  one 
week  or  longer,  an  absolute  deed  in  fee,  at  the  option  of  the  Medicine 
Company,  in  perpetuity,  so  that  no  longer  shall  we  be  able  to  trans- 
act the  ordinary  affairs  and  business  which  ap])ertain  to  the  town 
of  Salisbury,  for  the  oratory  of  the  yeomen  will  be  blended  with  the 
shrill  crv  of  the  Indian  warwhoop,  and  the  beat  of  the  festive  tom- 
touL  Thev  can  build  their  wigwams  and  campfires  any  where  in  the 
town  building.  Whether  this  lease  includes  the  town  vaults.  I  know 
not,  for  the  town  otHcials  still  hold  the  ke\s  thereto.     But  anv  citi- 


314 


LlTClll"li;i,D  CULXTV  JlK.NCU  AND  liAR 


zen  gettiiii;'  tlic  keys  to  the  vaults  and  desiring  to  examine  the  pro- 
bate, land  or  town  records,  could  only  obtain  access  to  them  after 
stumbling-  over  tall  drunken  chieftains,  scjualling  pappooses,  fat 
squaws  and  ill-smelling  dogs. 

Xot  onl\-  that,  but  your  Honor  will  see  that  it  includes  the  town 
hall  and  its  appurtenances.  Among  other  appurtenances  we  have  a 
lockup.  L'nder  the  language  of  this  lease  which  is  set  forth  in  the 
complaint,  we  will  no  longer  be  able  to  apprehend  ofifenders  and 
keep  them  in  close  confinement  in  that  lockup  until  they  may  be 
brought  before  ])roper  authority  Ijecause,  forsooth,  Arthur  (lood- 
n:an,  representing  the  Kickapoo  Indian  Medicine  Co.,  has  the  ex- 
clusive lease  of  our  lockup.  And  God  and  your  Honor  know  that  if 
these  Kickapoo  Indians  flock  into  our  lieautiful,  peaceful  town  and 
get  on  the  rampage,  after  filling  up  with  their  own  medicine  or  the 
\\hite  man's  fire-water,  there  will  be  immediate  need  for  a  lockup. 

Another  appurtenance  connected  with  our  town  hall,  and  dear  to 
the  heart  of  every  son  of  Salisbury,  is  a  cemetary  immediately  in 
tile  rear  of  that  hall,  where  repose  the  bones  and  ashes  of  many  of 
our  honored  dead.  Lender  the  terms  of  this  lease,  your  Honor,  it 
is  possible  that  wdien  Time  shall  have  filled  the  measure  of  Eternity, 
and  new  ones  shall  have  been  born,  still  that  hallowed  ground  which 
we  love  so  nnich  will  be  given  over  to  Indians  and  tape-worms,  and 
the  o-raves  strewn  \vith  feathers. 


A^KfCKA?oo 


ALBERT    \\AL)1IA:\I  S   3IAXIM  3I5 

SOUND  ADVICE 

Albert  W  adhanis,  Esq.  practiced  law  in  Goshen,  corning"  to  this 
County  from  \'ermont.  He  never  had  an  extensive  clientage  and 
held  some  peculiar  views  relative  to  law  and  ]:)articularly  to  railroad 
trusts,  hut  did  not  live  long  enough  to  see  the  trusts  all  abolished 
according  to  his  ideas.  I  found  in  his  papers  a  good  many  queer 
things,  some  of  which  were  very  sensible.  The  following  good  ad- 
vice is  I  think,  worthy  of  preservation. 

MAXIM  FOR  A  I^AWYER 

OR 

''Quantum  Meruit'^ 


Always  be  sure,  in  regard  to  the  payment  of  your  Fees,  before 
your  Services  are  Rendered. 


This  is  an  act  of  justice  to  your  clients,  as  well  as  to  yourself. 
I  will  suppose  you  do  not  make  this  provision,  but  render  voluntary 
services,  trusting  to  the  supposed  honor  of  your  clients,  after  bene- 
fiting them,  to  remunerate  you.  There  are  times,  when  your  chances 
are.  that  the}"  will  imitate  "Annanias  and  Sapphira"  ])art]\".  or  in 
full,  thereby  treating  you  discreditably,  and  placing  no  proper  esti- 
mate on  what  you  may  have  accompli.shed.  It  is  equally  a  wrong, 
il  excessive  fees  are  received.  In  order  to  com])ensate  vourseli 
fairly  in  the  first  case.  }ou  can  seldom  do  il.  (>nl\-  as  \"ou  give  the 
tielinquents  a  sting,  "a  la  mode"  "I'eter  vs.  Annanias  and  Sap])hira." 
in  which  case  you  loose  your  client  ])robably.  and  the  mutual  benefit 
is  at  an  end.  Doubtless  your  client  suiters  equally  with  yourself 
in  the  final  result,  which  might  have  been  avoided  by  _\ou  in  the  com- 
mencement, by  providing  for  your  fee.  Your  services  are  either  of 
value,  and  should  be  adequately  paid  for,  or  they  are  of  no  value. 
It  is  said  that  a  stone  fitted  for  a  wall,  will  not  be  left  in  the  way. 
and  in  a  like  manner  your  compensation  for  services  can  be  secured, 
before  you  are  placed  in  a  required  position.  If  this  cannot  be  done 
gcncroUy,  then  you  had  better  leave  the  undertaking,  and  follow 
son"ie  more  appropriate  calling,  by  Avhich  you  can  be  maintained. 
Therefore,  legal  services,  freely  rendered,  without  adequate  ])ro- 
vision  for  remuneration,  are,  as  to  yourself,  your  clients,  or  any  one. 
both  impolitic  and  unwise.  A  wise  lawyer,  for  any  services  he  n"iay 
have  rendered,  will  seldom  permit  a  client,  or  any  one,  to  define  his 
"Qimnhmi  }[cniit." 

This  Notice,  you  can  Dost  up  in  v(nu'  office,  or  hang  it  out  doors, 
b\'  the  side  of  vour  shingle. 

A.  JV. 

Albany,  X.  Y..  Feb.  ist.  186;. 


ST-^^  I.lTCllFllvLD  COrXTV  I'.KXCII    AM)   r,AR 


The  Annual  Banquets 

The  one  Imiidredth  anniversary  of  the  estahhslmient  of  the 
Litchfield  Count}'  J!ar  Association  was  observed  bv  a  Centennial 
Celebration  at  W'insted,  on  the  i8th  of  Xovember.  1898.  at  the 
Beardsley  House,  then  kept  by  Ceori^e  Spencer.  And  since  that 
time  the  Way  lias  held  an  Annual  J!an([uet  at  ahuut  the  same  time 
of  the  year,  they  being  holden  in  different  ])laces  in  the  countv  as 
accomodations   could  be  secured.     Thex'  are   "-enerallv  attended  bv 


,-1* 


Ijetween  forty  and  fifty  meml;ers  of  the  liar.  The  exercises  con- 
sist of  after-dinner  speeches,  with  a  good  deal  of  singing  inter- 
spersed, and  all  of  them  have  been  very  enjoyable. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  a  full  account  of  these  yearly  gatherings. 
T  ha^•e,  however,  already  included  in  tliis  book  some  of  the  good 
things  which  have  been  said  on  these  occasions,  and  now  present 
a  few  more. 

The  invitation  to  the  Centennial  was  as  follows: 

YE  IWiTATiOX. 
Greet  IXC, : 

i'y  authority  of  the  Litchfield  County  liar  you  are  summoned 
to  appear  at  Winsted  on  Friday  evening,  Xovember  18,  1898,  then 
and  there  to  answer  in  "a  c(3mplaint  wherein  it  is  complained  and  said. 
Fjrst  Count. 

T.  The  Sui)erior  Court  for  Litchfield  County  was  established 
within  and  for  Litchfield  County  in  1798. 

2.  At  a  meeting  of  the  ""Uarr"  of  said  County  it  was  voted  to 
commemorate  said  event  at  \\'insted.  Conn. 

3.  James  Huntington,  Wellington  K.  Smith,  Leonard  J.  Xick- 
erson,  and  Dwight  C.  Kilbourn  were  ai)])oiined  a  Committee  to 
carry  said  vote  into  efi:'ect. 

Si'Coxi)  Cor  XT. 

1.  Such  commemoration  will  be  lield  at  the  P.eardsle}-  House, 
W'insted  Conn.,  Xovember  18,  i8(j8,  and  consist  of  a  l*)an(|uet  and 
other  exercises  commencing  at  8:30  r.  .m. 

2.  ^'our  prompt  acceptance  of  this  invitation  is  requested  that 
the  (.'ommittee  may  be  able  to  guarantee  the  retpiisite  accommoda- 
tions. 

3.  Damages  are  assessed  at  $2  per  ])late. 

'idle  ])laintiff  is  found  to  be  of  sufficient  ability  to  provide  for 
your  comfort  and  i)leasure. 

liereot   lail  not  but  due  appearance  make,  nr  immediatel}'  signify 
cause  to  the  ccMitrarv. 
Winsted,  Xov.  4,  1898. 

TjIE   Co.MM  ITTI'I"., 

L)y  James  llunlington.  L'hairman. 
Dwi"ht  C.  Kilbourn,  Sec'v. 


TIIK   BAXnuET  317 

YE  SKXTIMKXT. 

"Come  l)ack  to  _\n)ur  mother,  ye  chiklren,  for  shame. 

Who  have  wandered  hke  truants,  for  riches  or  fame. 
With  a  smile  on  her  face,  and  a  sprig  in  lier  lap. 

She  calls  you  to  feast  from  her  bountiful  lap. 

Come  you  of  the  law  who  can  talk  if  you  please 
Tin  the  man  in  the  moon  will  allow  its  a  cheese. 

And  leave  the  old  lady  who  never  tells  lies 
Asleep  with  her  handkerchief  over  her  eyes." 

YE  :mexu. 


Little  Waramaug  Clams 

Celery 

■\\'e  liave  met  the   Eneniv   aiul  tliev   are   Ours." — Oliver  II.   Perry.    181,^ 


Puree  of  Eitchheld  .Aftishrooms 

Salted  Almonds  Stuffed  Olives 

"The  Law:     It  has  honored  us;  may  we  honor  it." — Daniel  U'ehster.  1847 


Steamed  Twin  Lake  Salmon 

'■Pincli   Gut   Plain"   Potatoes  "Dibble  Hill"   Sauce 

"We  Surgeons  of  the  Law  do  desperate  deeds,  sir." — Bcaitiiimil  ami  fletehcr 


Supremes  of  Sweetbreads 

Slurges  Case  style 

'"Oh!   "tis  a  blessed  thing  (o  have  rich  chenls." — Beauuiout  ami  fleteJier 


Probate  I'lmch 
"Protect  me  from  the  sin 
That  dooms  me  to  those  dreadful  words  : 
'My  dear,  where  liavc  vou  l)een  ?' " — O.  //'.  IloUncs 


j\rf)unt  Riga  Patridges,  Roasted.  Stuffed  with  Torrington  Chestnuts 

■■'Fore  God.  my  intelligence 
Costs  me  more  dian  m\    share  cift  cnmes  to." — B.  J  orison 


Knowles   Salad.   ■"Move   to  Erase"  Dressing 
■■Im]M)riance   is   one   thing  and   learnine's  another; 
But  a  debate's  a  debate,  that  I  assert." — Cong^reve 


Canaan  Tee  Cream,  with  ori!2,'inal  R.  and  R.  tlavor 
■■  'Tis  better  bellv  burst  than,  good  food  be  lost." 


Crackers       Cheese 


Coffee 


■■Whilst   we  together  jovial    sit.  _ 
Careless,   and  crowned   with   mirth   and   wit. 
We'll  think  of  all  the  friends  we  know 
And  drink  to  all  worth  drinking  to!" — Charles  Cotton 


3i8  ijTcrmKi.T)  couxtv  ]!i-:\cii  axd  uar 


PRESIDENT  HUNTINGTON'S  ADDRESS 

The  after-dinner  speaking"  was  opened  1)\  the  Hon.  James  Hunt- 
ington,— for  many  years  the  beloved  and  honored  president  of  the 
Bar  Association,  and  who  has  recently  deceased, — and  his  speech 
shows  in  a  measure  the  felicitous  and  hapi)y  manner  of  "Lhiclc  Jim," 
as  he  was  familiarly  called  by  his  brethren  of  the  Bar  during  the 
later  years  of  his  life. 

"Brethren  of  the  Bar  of  I^itchfiel  1  County:  A\'e  have  met  this 
evening  to  celelu'ate  the  lOO  years  of  the  existence  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  Litchfield  Countv.  To  ^■ou  voun""er  members  of  the  Bar 
it  may  seem  a  great  ways  back  to  i/<y'S,  but  to  me,  who  has  practiced 
at  the  Bar  two-fifths  of  the  time  (and  I  don't  tell  you  now  how  old 
1  am  )  it  seems  but  a  step  back  to  the  l)cg"iuuing.  I  suppose  that 
some  of  m_\'  Ijrethren  here  tonight  will  give  something  of  the  histor_\- 
and  reminiscences  of  the  Bar  either  specially  or  in  the  county  gen- 
erally, but  for  myself,  I  wish  to  say  but  a  few  words  in  regard  to 
this  celebration.  I  wish  to  direct  your  attention  to  a  few  of  its 
peculiarities  and  characteristics,  and  the  first  characteristic  that  I 
wish  to  mention  after  the  practice  of  two-fifths  of  a  century  at  this 
Bar,  is  that  it  has  the  reputation  of  being  a  fighting  Bar,  that  the 
lawyers  of  Litchfield  County  are  persistent  trvers  and  fighters,  they 
never  let  the  ground  go  un-hoed  in  a  case.  As  a  Judge  of  the  Court 
said  to  me  not  long  ago  "If  a  Judge  comes  to  Litchfield  County  and 
expects  that  it  will  be  a  sort  of  a  vacation,  after  he  has  been  to  Litch- 
field, and  from  Litchfield  to  Winsted  and  from  Winsted  down  to 
Xew  ?kIilford  and  Ijack  again  two  or  three  times,  he  will  go  h("»me 
thoroughly  convinced  that  it  is  no  vacation  to  come  to  Litchfield 
County  and  hold  a  long-  term." 

Another  characteristic  of  this  Bar  is  its  good  fellowship.  It  has 
been  so  for  forty  }'ears  and  I  jiresume  it  was  for  the  sixty  years 
before;  it  is  now  and  I  trust  it  ever  will  be. 

It  is  remarked  bv  attorneys  from  other  counties  in  this  State 
and  from  other  States,  that  they  ne\'er  came  to  a  Bar  where  there 
is  such  good  fellowshi])  as  there  is  in  this  liar.  The}'  never  address 
one  another  by  more  than  half  of  their  first  name.  And  when  one 
of  the  b(\\-s  becomes  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  they  with  ])ride 
and  ])leasure  address  him  as  His  Honor,  it  is  ten  chances  to  one  that 
when  night  comes  and  he  comes  oil  the  Bench,  that  the\'  address 
him  as  Tobey  or  Ed  or  Jerry  or  Bert  or  Gid.  And  he  feels  as  much 
honored  to  come  down  to  that  fellowship  ofif  frc^m  the  Bench  as  he 
is  by  being  resi)ectfully  addressed  while  on  it  b\  the  members  of 
this   r.ar. 

I  say  it  is  i)eculiarly  characteris'tic  of  the  T>ar  of  this  County  and 
I  trust  it  will  remain  so  another  too  years. 

.Another  characteristic  is  their  self-reliance,  we  have  to  rely  on 
ourselves  and  it  has  made  self  reliant  lawxers. 


]1LXTIXGT(JX  S   ADDRESS  319 

Another  thing,  they  are  a  tough  lot  physically  as  well  as  mentally. 
And  the\'  must  necessarily  he  so.  They  come  up  to  these  shire 
towns  in  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold.  We  start  out  early  in  the 
morning  and  go  7  or  8  miles  and  try  a  justice  case  all  day  long  and 
come  home  in  the  rain  and  cold  at  night,  t:_)gether  singing  songs  and 
telling  stories.  \\"e  are  called  in  the  night  season  to  go  miles  away 
to  make  the  wills  of  the  dying,  we  are  called  upon  day  after  day 
to  take  depositions  in  kitchens  by  the  kitchen  stove,  and  instead  ot 
sitting  down  to  such  a  tine  feast  as  this  to  eat  we  are  satisfied  with 
the  smell  of  the  onions  and  the  turni])s  and  cabbage  that  are  boiling 
on  the  stove  for  the  famil_\-  to  eat.  (  )ur  lives  are  spent  in  that  v/ay 
and  it  has  made  a  tough  lot  of  us  physically,  ^^'e  are  called  upon 
as  lawyers  in  the  country  to  become  all-round  men  and  to  do  all 
kinds  of  Vv'ork.  A  count r\-  lawyer  is  called  ui)on  to  do  everything  al- 
most that  can  be  done  except  writing  sermons  and  writing  Doctor's 
prescriptions  although  some  Cornwall  gentlemen  can  write  those, 
1  am  told. 

If  an\-one  asks  what  kind  of  law_\ers  does  it  make  to  jjraciice  in 
that  manner,  mv  answer  is  if  _\ou  take  the  Connecticut  ]\e])orts 
from  l\irb\-  to  the  70  Conn.,  \'ou  read  the  work  of  I.itciiheld  County 
lawyers  clear  through  the  70  volumes  of  those  reports.  Ves,  further, 
it  is  the  same  kind  of  men  that  \-ou  are,  gentlemen,  that  13  of  them 
have  re])rescnted  the  liench  vi  the  SujuMdor  Court  of  this  State, 
10  of  them  tlie  Su])reme  Court  liench  and  three  of  them  as  Chief- 
justices,  the\  were  men  of  the  same  experience  and  the  same  kind 
(jf  ]}ractice  ;  and  hi>w  well  the\-  have  tilled  their  ])Iaces  the  records 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  opinions,  that  have  been  written  by  them 
through  all  the  Connecticut  Re])orts  will  tell  you.  ^o  we  ma\'  well 
lie  proud  of  our  Count)-  and  of  our  Count)'  I'.ar,  and  I  ask,  when  m_\- 
time  has  come  to  join  the  innumerable  caravan  that  moves,  that 
there  can  be  nothing  better  said  of  me  than  that  Jim  Miuuington 
was  a  res])ectable  member  of  the  Litchfield  Count)'  i'.ar. 

M\-  brethren,  1  said  to  )-ou  that  40  years  jiractice,  two-fifths 
of  a  ceiUurx ,  two-fifths  of  the  time  of  this  Superior  Court  went  back 
to  where  one  could  almost  say  it  was  a  step  l)ack  to  the  beginning. 
We  have  with  us  t:inight  a  brother  whose  tall  form  and  snowy  hair 
are  known  to  xou  all  and  who  has  practiced  law  in  the  Su])erior 
Court  over  one  half  its  time,  who  is  a  connecting  link  with  the  be- 
s^inning  of  this  court:  who  i^racticed  law  with  men  who  w.'ere  mem- 
bers of  the  r.ar  when  the  Su])erior  Court  was  organized,  and  it  is 
Vxith  exceeding  great  pleasure,  nothing  could  give  me  more  pleasure, 
that  T  introduce  to  \'ou  nuv  venerable  and  honored  brother.  Donald 
J.  Warner. 

To  him  it  ma)-  be  said,  as  liohues  wrote  to  AMiittier  on  his  80th 
birthdav. 


320  ITCH  I' J  i:  1.1)  colntv  r.icxcii  and  uak 

Dear  friend,  wlunn  th\'  four.'^Cdre  winters  leave  more  dear 

Than  when  Hfe's  roseate  summer  on  tliy  clieek  Ijurned  in  tlie  tlusii 

of  manhood's  earHest  vear, 
Lonely,  how  lonel_\- !  is  the  snowy  peak 
Thy  feet  have  reached  after  many  a  year! 
Close  on  thy  foot-steps  'mid  the  landscape  drear 
I  stretch  my  hand  thine  answerini^'  g"rasp  to  seek 
Warm  with  the  love  no  rippling"  rhymes  can  s])eak. 
I,ook  backward  !  from  th\-  loftv  heigiit  survev 
Thy  years  of  toil,  of  peaceful  victories  won 
Of  dreams  made  real,  large  hopes  outrun  ! 
Look  forward!  brighter  than  earth's  morning  ra}' 
Streams  the  ])ure  light  of  Heaven's  unsetting  sun. 
The  unclouded  dawn  of  Life's  immortal  day. 

h^ir  judge  Warner's  address  see  his  reminiscences,  page  loi. 

Many  letters  were  received  from  the  absent  brethren  regretting 
their  inal^ility  to  attend;  the  one  froiu  the  Hon.  Wm.  L.  Ransom, 
who  for  nearl}'  thirt\-  years  Vi'as  Clerk  of  the  Courts  enclosed  as  his 
response  an  excuse  from  the  late  Judge  Granger  for  not  attending 
a  Banquet  at  the  Island  Jlotel  t<»  which  he  had  been  invited,  and  is 
as  follows : 

Dear  Ransom,  were  my  legs  as  liml)er 
As  they  were  in  daxs  of  yore, 
When  I  snared  the  festive  sucker 
(  )n  tile  Whiting  River  shore. — 
Silverv  stream, — that  nuu-mers  sweetly 
Through  fair  Wangum's  ])eaceful  vales. 
Kissed  l)v  morning's  slanting  sunbeams, 
Fanned  l)y  evenings  pleasant  gales. 

When  T  chased  the  obese  woodchuck 
O'er  the  hills  and  sandy  knoll 
WHien  I  snatched  the  sluggish  bull  heads 
W^rigglino-  frdm  their  mmldx'  holes, 
When  with  dog  and  gun  by  moonlight 
Through  the  swamps  and  reedy  fens 
T  ])ursucd  the  scented  polecat 
Terror  of  the  matron  hens. 

Cdadl}   would  I  climb  .\b)uul   I'isgah. 

Mwstic  mountain  ol   the   l\ast, 

b'or  the  fun  of  being  with  _\ou 

At  your  Island  Hotel  feast. 

But,  Oh  !  Ran.som,  temi)U';  edax 

Unremitting  night  and  da\ 

Seventv  years  has  gnawed  our  nniscles 

'I'ill  thc\ 're  in  a — b.ad  waw 


ALOXZO    X.    I.KWIS     LETTER  321 

Youthful  hose  well  saved  oi  ragged 
Serve  but  to  hide  our  spindle  shanks. 
And  our  shin  bones  sharp  and  jagged 
I 'lav  us  now  rheumatic  pranks. 
Accoutered  thus  Dear  Rans,  you  see, 
The  feast  you  spread  is  not  for  me, 
Whatever  things  the  Gods  deny  us, 
Is  for  the  best.     Good  night.     Tobias. 

Leonard  W.  Cogswell,  the  (  )nicial  Stenographer,  offered  the  fol- 
lowing original 

POE^I: 

Oh,  sacred  soil  of  Litchfield  Hills, 
Where  Winter's  winds  howl  drear  ; 
The  country's  best  and  bravest  men. 
Have  found  their  l)irtli-])l:ice  here. 

The  plain  and  sim])le  life  tliey  led 
Upon  these  rugged  hills. 
Gave  vigorous  health  and  mental  strength. 
Brave  hearts  and  sturdy  wills. 

Senators.  Gox-ernurs,  Judges  rreachers, 
Found  here  ciaigenial  soil. 
And  worked  their  wa\'  to  liigh  renown 
With  most   incessant  toil. 

Then  let  us  all  fresh  courage  take. 
And  till  Death  our  warm  blood  chills, 
W'e'll  l)less  the  Fate  that  gave  us  birth 
(  )n  these  rock-ribbed   Litclifield   Hills. 

At  one  of  our  bancpiets  the  following  interesting  letter  was  re- 
ceived from  Rev.  A.  \.  Lewis: 

Alontpelier,  A'ermont.  Dec.  ii,  1902. 

To  the  Men]bers  of  the  I^itchfield  County  Rar,  in  annual  reunion 
convened : 

Gentlemen: — I  regret  exceedingly  my  inabilit}'  to  be  present  at 
your  festive  gathering.  Fort\-five  years  ago  at  the  September  term 
of  the  Superior  Court,  Judge  Seymour  presiding,  I  was  admitted 
an  attorney  and  counsellor.  F.  D.  Recman,  Esq.,  was  Clerk  of  the 
courts,  and  Hollister,  Graves,  Hubbard,  Toby  Granger,  George  C. 
W^oodruft'.  judge  Phelps,  Sedgwick,  Sanford,  et  al.,  were  the  lead- 
ing barristers.  "There  were  giants  in  those  days."  The  Litch- 
field Rar  was  second  to  none  in  the  state. 

The  condition  of  things  was  very  dift'erent  than  the  present. 
Litchfield  was  an  inland  town,  accessable  only  by  stage  and  private 
conveyance.  The  lav\'yers,  litigants  and  witnesses  came  to  stay. 
The  ^Mansion  House,  V.  S.  Hotel  and  Wheeler  House  were  thronged 
with  guests.     The  open  hotel  fires  in  the  hotel  olUces  were  scenes 


322  LlTCllFlKLD    COUNTY   JSKNCll    AND    BAR 

of  mirth  and  jollitw  William  Deming",  Sr..  Stephen  Deming,  Harry 
liissell  and  other  notables  were  usually  in  attendance  with  stories, 
jokes  and  repartees  worth  recording. 

"Uncle"  Stephen  Deming  had  been  in  his  younger  days  a  tavern 
keeper.  A  certain  deacon,  professedly  a  temperance  man,  but  sus- 
pected of  selling  "the  ardent"  on  the  sly.  took  up  his  parable  and 
said,  "Uncle  Stephen,  when  you  reflect  upon  your  rum-selling  days, 
the  widows  antl  orphans  you  have  made  and  the  miser_\-  }'ou  have 
caused,  how  do  you  feel?"     Uncle  Ste]ihen  paused  a  moment  and 

said,  "Deacon ,  when  I  think  of  myself,  by  myself,   I   feel 

like  putting  my  hand  upon  my  mouth  and  ]n\-  mouth  in  the  dust  and 
crying  unclean,  unclean,  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner.  But,  Dea- 
con, when  1  compare  mvself  with  m_\^  neighbors  I  thank  God  and 
take  courage." 

A  Plymouth  farmer  had  a  case  in  Graves"  hands  which  had  been 
runninof  for  vears.  Term  after  term  Graves  had  charged  continu- 
ance  fee  $7;  and  the  farmer  becoming  discouraged  had  tried  to  get 
the  case  taken  out  of  court,  but  all  in  vain.  (_)ne  day  he  was  sitting 
on  the  piazza  of  the  U.  S.  Hotel  rehearsing  his  grievance  to  the 
lawyers,  when  Graves  went  past.  The  farmer  ejaculated,  "I  hope 
to  G — d  Graves  won't  go  to  hell!"  "V\diy  not,"  asked  one  of  the 
listeners.  "IJecause,"  answered  the  farmer,  "Because  he'd  make 
trouble  there." 

The  writer  of  this  talk  was  a  student  in  Hollister  t\:  Beeman's 
office  and  was  often  employed  in  copying  ])leadings,etc.  In  one  of  the 
documents  occurred  the  following  sentence:  "And  whereas  this  case 
has  been  brought  b\-  regular  continuances  to  this  court,  etc."  In 
the  co]i\-  made  b\  the  writer  it  read  thus:  "And  whereas  this  case 
has  been  lirougbt  1)\-  regular  contrivances  to  this  court!"  The 
blunder  (  ?)  caused  a  ripple  of  merriment  on  the  bench  and  in  the 
bar.     It  was  too  true. 

A  petition  for  a  divorce  was  submitted  to  a  referee  or  commis- 
sioner who  made  his  re]:)ort  thereon  to  the  court.  It  was  charged 
by  the  ])etitioner  that  her  husband  ou  a  certain  occasion  when  she 
had  returned  from  a  drive  with  the  co-resi)ondent  had  composed  and 
recited  to  her  and  her  escort  before  tlie  cliildren  the  following  lines: 

"William  Johnson  went  to  ride. 
With  Sarah  Wilkins  for  his  bride. 

Returning  home  I  heard  them  say. 
We've  had  a  dam  good  ride  to-day." 

Imagine  ilollister  reading  with  solenni  face  this  [)oetical  gem  to 
'the  court ! 

A  Litchfield  law_\er.  whose  name  I  have  forgotten,  was  pleading 
a  case  of  little  importance  before  a  jurw  lie  was  very  pathetic  and 
solcnni,  so  much  so  that  when  he  concluded  the  o])iu")sing  counsel 
arose  and  said,  "May  it  please  xour  Honor,  hadn't  we  better  sing  a 
Innm  ?'' 


FELICITIES  325 

The  Hon.  Charles  CIiai)man  of  Hartftird  was  journe}ing'  'to 
Litchfield  to  attend  conrt,  in  the  Hartford  and  Litchheld  stage.  It 
was  winter.  The  stage  was  an  open  pnng,  the  snow  was  falling" 
and  a  northwest  wind  drove  it  directly  into  the  faces  of  the  pass- 
engers. Chapman  and  "Dick"  Hubhard.  a  In'other  lawyer,  were 
sitting  on  the  hrst  seat  and  took  the  fnll  force  of  the  storm.  Xo 
one  had  spoken  for  some  minntes,  when  Chapman  broke  the  silence 
with  "I  say  Hubbard,  I  had  rather  facit  per  aliiim  than  facit  per  se!'' 

Gentlemen  : — Some  of  us  have  outlived  our  contemporaries.  We 
are  ncaring  the  setting-  sun  :  our  places  must  soon  be  filled  l)y  an- 
other generation;  soon  we  shall  be  summoned  to  the  court  of  last 
resort.  May  we  respond  to  the  summons,  bearing'  with  us  the  record 
of  a  well-spent  life  and  the  hope  of  a  blessed  immortality. 

Yours  fraternall}', 

A.  X.  Li:wis, 
Pastijr  of  Christ's  Church.  ^ront])elier,  A'ermont. 


HURLBUTISMS 

The  late  \\'il]iam  V.  Hurl])ut,  Clerk  of  the  Court  of  Common 
rieas,  gave  me  considerable  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  this 
\vork.  The  following  items  are  some  which  he  thought  would 
interest  members  of  the   liar. 

(  )ne  of  the  learned  judges  of  the  Superior  Court,  after  setting- 
through  a  long-,  tedious  trial  of  a  case,  to  charge  the  jury  com- 
menced with  the   following-  remark  : 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Jury!  ]f  you.  know  anything  aljout  this 
case,  God  knows  that  you  know  more  about  it  than  I  do." 

On  the  trial  of  a  jM'isoner  for  shooting-  a  man  whom  he  thought 
was  stealing-  his  chickens,  the  iudge  charged  the  jury  very  forcibly 
ag'ainst  the  accused,  l)Ut  the  jur\'  brought  in  a  \-erdict  of  "Xot 
Guilty."  The  judge  continued  the  laborious  work  of  sharpening 
his  pencil  in  which  he  was  engaged  when  the  iiu-\-  gave  the  verdict. 
After  a  consideral)le  length  of  time  had  ela])se(l  he  suddenly  ex- 
claimed,  "S ,   }ou   have   esca]:)ed   as   ])v   fire."     The   members 

of  the  liar  have  never  l)een  able  to  understand  the  nature  of  that 
esca])e. 

The  Hon.  Truman  v'^mith  closed  an  argument  made  in  a  little 
case  appealed  from  a  justice  of  the  Peace,  in  which  the  matter  in 
demand  was  very  trivial,  and  the  action  of  the  opposing  counsel 
had  been  very  erratic,  with  the  following  comments.  "Tf  your 
Honor  please  :  T  had  ]M-e]iared  with  considerable  care  a  brief  with 
the  intention  of  filing  it  with  the  coin-f.  After  T  had  finished  it  I 
said  to  myself,  if  I  live  fourteen  years  from  the  2r)th  day  of  next 
October  I  shall  be  one  hundred  years  old  :  now  is  it  worth  while 
at  my  time  of  life  to  come  into  court  with  an  enormous  bomb  shell 
just  to  annihilate  a  musquito?  and  T  said  to  myself  it  was  not — - 
the  game  was  not  worth  the  ]iowder." 


324  LITCIIFIKLI)   COLNTV    Jll'NCH   AND   LAR 

There  are  a  multitude  of  odd  and  funny  things  connected  with 
our  profession.  I  am  obhged  to  exclude  almost  everything"  of  that 
sort,  but  will  save  a  few.  Some  of  them  I  have  taken  from  Brother 
Cogswell's  brief  before  the  "■Supreme  Court  of  Eaters"  and  others 
trnm  \-arious  sources. 

ScKXK,  Criminal  Court  in  Canaan.  Alonzo  B.  Garfield,  C.  J- 
on  the  bench.  Crime,  prisoner  charged  with  robbery  of  a  drunken 
woman.     Clint  Koraback,  acting  State's  attorney. 

Airs.  Xora  vSmith  (complainant)  sworn. 

Ex.  by  Air.  Roraback : 

O.  W  ere  vou  down  in  the  defendant's  house  near  Fine  Grove? 

A.  Yes. 

0.  Did  \ou  have  some  monev  there? 

A.  Yes.' 

O.  Did  }()u  lose  it? 

A.  Yes.  It  was  stolen  from  m_\'  pocketbook  which  I  carried  in- 
side my  corsets,  as  I  lay  on  the  bed  drunk. 

O.  You  think  the  ])risoncr  stole  it? 

A.  Yes.  and  I  come  up  to  see  Hen.  Roraback  the  next  day,  and 
he  said  he'd  see  I  had  justice  done.  Hen.  is  all  right  since  "he 
growed  up." 

Mr.  Rorai'.ack: — That  is  all  the  testimony  we  have,  your  Honor, 
and  it  is  enough.     Don  wants  him  bound  over. 

GarFikf.I),  C.  J. — We  hain't  got  much  evidence  ag'in"  the  prisoner, 
and  I  don't  think  he  is  guilty  :  that  is.  not  nmch  ;  but  what  Don  says 
goes  in  this  court,  and  so  I'll  bind  him  over. 

ScKXK,  Su])erior  Court  at  Litchfield,  ( )ctober  Term,  1906.  Hon. 
Ralph  Wheeler,  J.  Prisoner,  h'ranceski  Balcyss,  charged  with  rob- 
bing a  Swede  of  $165. 

DoXAT.i)  T.  \\\\R\KR,  to  complainant.  '\lv.  Gustafson  :  Did  you 
have  a  Hungarian  at  work  for  you?  A.  I  did;  he  is  what  they  call 
i\  J'ole,  and  1  can  do  a  day's  work,  or  yump  over  the  moon  cjuicker 
than  I  speak  his  name,  but  I  have  it  writ  down  on  a  piece  of  paper, 
and  }ou  can  tear  ofi:'  what  you  want  and  make  a  dictionary  of  the 
rest.  T  had  a  Geruian.  and  an  Irishman,  and  a  nigger  to  work  for 
me  at  the  same  time,  and  at  first  1  thought  one  of  them  took  it,  but 
our  Xorthfield  detective  sa\"s  this  is  the  man. 

Don  took  the  pajier  and  attem])ted  to  read  the  following  name 
— but  he  didn't — but  asked  Kilbourn  to:  Czyrkstecheltzkoxtcheld- 
oszlefifski. 

T.  F.  R^■\^'  (counsel  for  prisoner,  to  prisoner  on  the  stand)  : 

O.  if  you  had  an\-  of  your  countrymen  in  AA'aterburw  who  were 
they  and  vvhere  are  they  now?' 

Tin:  I'kisoxkr  (throueh  a  \\'alerl)ur\-  interpreter): 
retrovsk\-,  Oskaloft'skw  and  Xevereft'ski, 

1'o  Siberia  were  sent: 
Kitofi'sky,  RubonotTsky,  and  W'allereft'sky, 
Tn  a  dungeon  cell  were  pent. 


FELICITIES  325 

Alilarodovitch  and  Tetruvitch. 
Kostolovitch  and  Rostomaroft' 
The}-  imprisoned  or  swung  them  off ; 

Uut  wlien  is  gone. 

He  never  is  missed. 

That  is  what  it  sa_\s  in  a  i'ohsh  letter  written  in  Russian  seript. 
Three   Other    Interpreters    Emi'eoyed    i!v    the    Court    to 
Watch  the  First: — That  is  wrong,  he  says  what  not  so  it. 
The  CofKT :  Keep  still. 
Don  :  Wait. 
RvAX  :   Sit  down. 

The  Col'RT  :   Air.  Stenographer,  what  did  the  witness  say? 
The  StexograimlI'Ik  :   1  don't  know,  _\onr  Honor. 
The  Court  :  This  is  the  worst  Babel  of  a  case  1  ever  heard. 
Brother  Ryan  got  the  $165. 

(Answer  to  complaint  for  di\-orce  between  Hungarians,  received 
from  Hungar_\   In    Kilbcjurn.j 

Dr.  Grosz  Dezso 
Law\er 
S.  A.  L'jiiEi.Ev 
Hungar\-. 

High  EsteE-MEd  Court: 

Janos  Zsarnaw  seated  at  Torrington.  Conn.,  according  to  the 
writ  of  summon  of  Litchfield  County,  ss.  dated  from  1906.  12  Sep- 
tember, and  being  handed  to  me  on  the  da\'  of  2oktober,  claims  that 
the  marriage,  bound  between  me  and  the  plaintiff  in  the  year  of  1873. 
should  be  devorced  upon  the  ground,  that  I  should  have  wilfully 
deserted  him  and  total!}"  negdected  all  the  duties  of  marriage. 

All  thi>  complains  of  the  ])laintiff  are  not  true.  I  did  not  de- 
sert him  but  he  left  me  10  years  since,  dying  secretly,  ^\'ithin  this 
time-  he  did  not  wrote  a  single  line,  nor  supported  me  and  our  chil- 
dren. Therefore  he  is  v^dio  neglected  the  duties  of  marriage  and 
not  I  am  who  has  deserted  him. 

1  being  now  a  55  years  old  women,  unable  to  earn,  do  not  agree, 
that  our  marriage  should  be  devorced.  On  the  contrary  :  I  entreat 
the  jury  that  Janos  Zsarnay  should  be  convicted  to  pay  a  20  dollar 
monthlx'  rate  as  to  support  myself  antl  the  children. 

I  give,  further,  to  acknowledge  to  the  court,  that  a  verdic  of  de- 
vorce  returned  in  the  l\  S.  A.  lias  no  power  ther  in  Hungary  and 
even  if  the  jury  shotd,d  devorce  him.  according  to  our  laws.  I  remain 
in  links  of  marriage,  still  he  can  live  married  in  the  i'.  S.  A.  That 
would  be  very  unlawful. 

Faith  full  V, 


326  I.lTClll-Jl'.I.D    CorXTV    BKXCII   ASD   ]!.\R 

AN  ENOCH  ARDEN  CASE 

••AH's  \\"ell  that  Hnds  Well;'— 

(Jn  Alt.  Riga  as  well  as  in  Shakespeare. 

The  happy  ending  of  St.  \'alen>Line's  night,  Fe'bruar\-  14th.  1908, 

of  the   tragical    stor\-   of  Lovie  of   Mt.   Riga,   deserted 

with  her  baby  in  her  arms  b}-  her  lursband  in  1882,  who  was  re- 
ported dead  a  few  years  later,  and  thereafter  remained  unheard  of 
until  August,   1907.   when,  like  Enoch  Arden,  he  appeared  to  find 

his   wife   hap])ily   married   to   Charlie    with   two   Sitalwart 

children  by  her  side,  but  unlike  Enoch  of  old  did  not  conveniently 
sink  into  obscurity  ag'ain. 

Divorced  February  14th,  1908,  from  the  resurrected  husband 
and  married  the  night  of  the  same  day  to  her  true  husl.)and,  accord- 
ing to  the  following  form  : — 

lloth  Lovie  and  Charlie  _\-our  right  hands  unite 
IJefore  witnesses  here  St.  \'alentine"s  night. 
You,  CHARLI li.  do  ])romise  to  take  Lovie  to  wife. 
To  love  her  and  cherish  her  the  rest  of  your  life. 
You,  LOriB.  (\o  promise  Charlie  as  husband  to  take. 
And,  cleaving  only  to  him.  each  and  all  others  forsake. 
Now,  each  having  promised  the  ( 'dier  to  wed. 
To  Have  and  to  Hold,  till  Life's  journey  be  sped. 
For  richer,  for  jDOorer,  in  sickness  and  health, — 
\\v  force  of  the  Lavv  of  our  good  Commonwealth, 
1  VR(3CLAni  ynu  t:)  be  lawful  Husband  and  Wife. 

/.'  EX  J '01. 
jNIay  your  joys  be  many,  and  your  sorrows  be  light, 
And  the  memories  sweet  of  St.  N'alentine's  night. 
And  ever,  as  the  circling  years  roll  on, 
Keep  a  kindly  thought  of  the  Jus'tice. — DiMi. 

Till-:  ALxKixc,  oi'  A  jiKoK. — judge  i\ali)h  Wheeler  liad  had  his 
patience  sorely  tried  b\  lawxers  who  wished  to  talk,  and  b\'  men 
who  tried  to  evade  jur\-  service.  Between  hypothetical  questions 
and  excuses  it  seenuMJ  as  if  they  never  would  get  to  the  actual'trial 
of  the  case,  j^o  when  a  ])uzzled  little  German,  who  had  been  ac- 
ce])ted  b\-  both  sides  as  a  juror,  jumjieil  u]).  llie  jmlge  was  exas- 
])erated. 

"Shudi^"e!'"  cried  the  Cerman.  'A\'hat  is  it?"  demanded  the 
jud*ge.  "I  tink  I  like  to  go  home  to  mein  Fran."'  said  the  Cerman. 
"So  would  I.  but  we  can't."  retorted  the  ludge.  "Sil  down."  "Hut. 
Shudge,"  persisted  the  Cerman,  "I  tink  1  not  make  a  good  shuror." 
"You're  the  best  in  the  box."  said  the  Judge.  "Sit  down."  "What 
box?"  said  the  Cerman.  "The  jur_\-  box."  said  the  Judge.  "Ach. 
llimmel.  I  ihougni  it  was  ein  l)ad  box  what  beoples  get  in  somedimes. 
]^)Ut.  Shudge."  ])ersisted  the  little  Cerman.  "1  dou't  sjjcak  goot  bhig- 
lish  alread\'  \et." 


FiaiClTlES  ^2J 

'"Yon  don't  have  to  speak  at  all,"  said  the  Judge.  "Sit  down." 
The  httle  German  pointed  to  the  lawyers  to  make  his  last  des- 
perate plea.  "Shudge,  '  said  he.  "1  can't  make  noddings  von  what 
dese  fellers  say."  It  was  the  judge's  chance  to  get  even  with  the 
lawvers  for  many  annoyances.  "X either  can  anyone  else,"  he  said. 
"Sit  down."     With  a  sigh,  the  little  German  sat  down. 

Here  is  a  simnct  which  the  Clerk  received,  which  perhaps  may  be 
slightly  sarcastic. 

"For  the  love  of  God  and  humanity. 
To  avoid  both  wrath  and  profanir_\-. 
To  enable  the  executor  to  pay  legacies  and  debts. 
Send  along  that  certificate  in  Sclleck  vs.  Lietts." 

Yours  very  truly. 

Jtidge  Aides  T.  Granger  was  very  much  addicted  to  poetry  ;  one 
of  his  specimens  has  been  for  many  years  a  classic.  More  than 
fifty  years  ago  when  Fred  D.  Heeman  was  Clerk  and  Air.  Granger 
\A'as  simply  a  practicing  attorney,  Slier  it!  Sedgwick  got  ijeeman  to 
write  an  epitaph  on  Granger,  which  \\"as  as  follows  : 

"\\  hen  Toby  died — dire  groans  were  he.ird. 

His  friends  were  in  commotion. 
F'or  Heaven  refused  to  dwn  the  bird 
And  Hell  declined  the  portion." 
Taking  this  epita])h  into  another  room  the  Sheriff  folded  it  up 
and  presently  retm-netl  to  the  court  room  where  .Mr.  Granger  was 
at  fhe  table,  trying  a  case,  and  handed  the  note  to  him.      Cpon  read- 
ing it,  Air.  Granger  turned  it  over  and  wrote  ui)on  tiie  back  the  fol- 
lowing, upon  Air.  ]^)eeman  : 

"And  when  the  Clerk  of  Hell  rose  u[) 

To  publis'h  to  the  legions 
The  reason  wh_\-  the  l^ird  was  liarred 

A  place  in  those  dark  regions. 
A  bright  red  glow  about  his  head 

Revealed  to  all  those  poor  damned  sotils 
The  face  and  form  of  lieeman." 

Lines  Composed  b\'  Judge  Granger  while  on  the  Bench 
trying  a  Sheep-stealing  case. 

Alas  for  Winters,  all  forlorn. 

He  husked  for  Hod.  the  Rustling  Corn 

And  through  the  woods  when  night  was  dark. 

He  raided  on  the  sheep  of  Clark. 

And  one  small  lamb  out  of  the  Rock 

He  slew  and  skinned,  without  a  shock 

Of  conscience,  or  a  thought  of  wrong. 

But  took  the  mutton  right  along.  : 


328  LITCHFIELD   COUXTY   ]iKXCir    AM)    liAR 

The  picture  of  judj^cs  t'\-ick'ncc  shows  h(j\v  ;he  witnesses  impress 
a  judicial  mind,  it  is  a  reprochicticm  of  a  ])?j)er  left  hv  a  learned 
judge  upon  his  desk  after  a  tedious  trial.  (  )ther  similar  papers  arc 
in  my  possession,  many  of  them  utterly  unintelligible.  The  State 
pays  an  enormus  sum  for  Stenogra])hers,  but  their  notes  are  little 
value  during-  a  trial  and  the  translating  of  them  is  too  expensive  for 
an  ordinary  suit.  The  attic  of  the  Court  House  contains  manv 
pounds  of  their  liierogl\-phic  papers,  and  are  practically  worthless, 
as  different  systems  are  used,  and  seldom  one  shorthand  writer  can 
read  anothers  notes.  To  make  our  present  system  of  taking  evi- 
dence of  full  use,  the  notes  should  be  transcribed  during  the  trial 
and  placed  in  the  liands  of  the  Court  and  Counsel.  Until  that  is 
done  lawvers  and  judges  must  take  their  own  notes  as  best  thev  can. 


THE   lawyers'    ways. 

"I've  been  list'nin  to  them  lawyers 

In  the  court  house  of  the  street 
An'  1  ve  come  to  the  conclusion 

That  I'm  most  completely  beat. 
First  one  fellow  riz  to  argv. 

An'  he  boldly  waded  in 
As  he  dressed  the  itremljlin'  ])ris"ner 

In  a  coat  o'  deep-dyed  sin. 
\\'hy,  he  painted  him  all  over 

In  a  hue  o"  blackest  crime. 
An'  he  smeared  his  reputation 

Witli  the  thickest  kind  o'  grime. 
Tell  I  found  myself  a-wond'rin, 

in  a  misty  way  and  dim. 
How  the  Lord  had  come  to  fashion 

Such  an  awful  man  as  him. 
Idien  the  other  lawyer  started. 

An'  with  briming,  tearful  eyes, 
Said  his  client  was  a  martyr 

That  was  brought  to  sacrifice. 
An'  he  gave  to  that  same  ]:)ris'ncr 

Ever_\-  blessed  hiunan  grace. 
Till  I  saw  the  light  o"  virtue 

Fairl\-  shining  from  his  face. 
'i'lien  1  own  'at  I  was  ])uzzled 

How  such  things  could  rightlx'  1)e; 
And  this  aggrevating  c|uestion 

Seems  to  keep  a  ])uzzling  me. 
So  will  some  one  ]~)lease  intorm  me, 

.\n'  this  mystery  unroll, 
]  low  an  angel  an'  a  devil 

Can  ])ossess  the  self-same  sotd. ' 


IT  //^ 


/''^<'^^- 


<^.€s 


97/ 


_£jirse  itdf^^'jt      Morse  oio:/^ 


Jfor?seff^ce~^_  '^oq.o^  iC^rft c^_£/ a^ ^ ^^ 


^  2^u'f/  meney/IJl 


TSr^^^JJ^^ 


^ 


Till':    judge's   notes   OE    ENJl'EXCE 
Sliuwing-   the    workings    of   thf    Judicial    mind 


MR.    AVIIJ.IAM   GRIMES. 
(.■■()l.l)  CRI.MKS") 


HISTORICAL   XUTE  329 

"OLD  GRIMES." 

One  of  the  characters  connected  with  our  legal  fraternity  was 
William  Grimes,  universally  known  as  "Old  Grimes."  It  is  gener- 
ally supposed  that  he  was  a  mythical  character  but  he  was  not.  He 
was  a  run-away  slave  who  came  to  Litchtield  probably  about  1808, 
and  was  a  general  servant  to  the  students  at  the  Law  School.  He 
was  born  in  \'irginia  and  was  the  body  servant  of  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Grimes,  whose  name,  in  after  years,  he  adopted  ;  by  the 
fortunes  of  business  adversities  his  master  was  obliged  to  dispose 
of  him  and  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  cruel  masters  from  whose  bar- 
barous treatment  he  ran  away  to  the  land  of  Liberty,  which  at  that 
time  was  Litchfield,  judge  Reeve  had  acquired  quite  a  reputation 
for  defending  fugitive  slaves  and  Litcl-field  was  thought  by  them  to 
be  the  home  of  the  free.  Grimes  was  thrifty,  frugal  and  acquiretl 
some  little  property  and  owned  a  piece  of  land  between  the  present 
residence  of  George  Kenney  and  the  Fire  Department  building,  to 
v.'hich  he  moved  a  small  building  for  a  barber  shop.  Some  of  the 
Southern  students  of  the  Law^  School  ascertained  his  status,  made 
matters  unpleasant  for  him  l;y  notifying  his  master  who  took  steps 
to  recover  him  and  he  was  o[)!igcd  to  disp.ose  of  his  property  through 
his  friends  Dr.  Abel  Catlin  and  William  H.  Thompson,  who  took  the 
[)roceeds  to  purchase  his  freedom.  His  last  appearance  on  Litch- 
field Land  Records  was  August  6,  1824.  In  the  latter  years  of  the 
Law  School,  Grimes  removed  to  Xew  Haven,  where  he  acted  in  the 
same  capacity  as  he  had  at  Litchfield  to  the  students  at  Yale  College. 
He  published  in  a  little  pamphlet  a  sketch  of  his  life,  containing  the 
portrait  of  \\hich  a  copy  is  here  given.  ]  le  died  about  1850  in  Xew 
Haven. 

His  great  notoriety  consists  in  the  the  well-known  lines  ''Old 
Grimes  is  Dead,"  the  history  of  which  as  given  to  me  by  an  old 
resident  of  Litchfield,  and  from  other  data  which  I  have  secured 
is  as  follows :  Albert  G.  Green,  of  Rhode  Island,  who  afterwards 
became  a  distinguished  man,  L'nited  States  Senator,  etc.,  was  a 
student  of  the  Law  School  in  1812,  and  was  very  fond  of  making 
rhymes  about  all  manner  of  things,  and  upon  all  occasions,  and 
Grimes  im]3ortuned  him  to  make  some  poetry  for  him,  the  result  be- 
ing the  lines  above  referred  to,  a  few  stanzas  of  which  are  here 


given. 


OLD  GRniES. 

Old  Grimes  is  dead — that  good  old  man. 
We  ne'er  shall  see  him  more : 

He  used  to  wear  a  long  black  coat 
All  buttoned  down  before. 

His  heart  was  open  as  the  day. 

His  feelings  all  were  true  ; 
His  hair  was  some  inclined  to  grav — 

He  wore  it  in  a  queue. 


330  LlTCili'iliLD    COUNTY   Dl;XClt   AND   LAR 

Whene'er  he  heard  the  voice  of  pain 
His  breast  with  pity  burned ; 

The  large  round  head  upon  his  cane 
From  ivory  was  turned. 

Kind  words  he  ever  had  for  all, 
He  knew  no  base  design  ; 

His  eyes  were  dark  and  rather  small. 
His  nose  was  aquiline. 

He  lived  in  peace  with  all  mankind, 
In  friendship  he  was  true  ; 

His  coat  had  pocket-holes  behind, 
His  pantaloons  were  blue. 

But  good  old  Grimes  is  now  at  rest, 
Nor  fears  misfortune's  frown  ; 

He  wore  a  double-breasted  vest, 
The  stripes  ran  up  and  ('own. 

He  modest  merit  sought  to  hnd 

And  pay  it  its  desert ; 
He  had  no  malice  in  his  mind. 

No  rullles  on  his  shirt. 

His  neighliors  he  did  not  al)use. 

Was  sociable  and  gay  ; 
He  wore  large  buckles  on  his  shoes. 

And  changed  them  every  day. 

Thus  undisturbed  by  anxious  cares 
His  peaceful  moments  ran. 

And  everybody  said  he  was 
A  hue  old  gentleman. 


^ 


GEORGE  CATLIN'S  PORTRAIT 

The  iroutisipiecc  in  this  book  is  from  an  old  oil  ]xunting  that  he 
made  of  himself  \yhen  he  was  about  twenty-tive  }ears  old  and  is 
now  in  the  possesston  of  his  daughter  in  New  York  city  who  kindly 
loaned  it  for  reproduction. 


DIXNKR  TO  JUDGIi  SliYMOUR  331 

CUAii'-LlMKXTARV  DIXXKR  TO 
JUDGE  (J.  S.  SEYMOUR 

On  the  29th  of  January,  1874,  the  JJar  of  Fairfield  County  gave 
a  complimentary  cinmer  to  Chief  Justice  Origen  Storrs  Seymour, 
on  the  eve  of  his  retirement  from  th^  Jjench — under  the  provisions 
of  the  Constitution. 

Many  distinguished  guests  were  present ;  many  pleasant  and 
interesting  things  were  said,  some  relating  to  our  Rar  and  though 
all  are  worthy  of  preservation  we  have  the  space  for  only  a  few. 

The  Fresident,  Hon.  James  C.  Roomis,  introduced  the  exercises 
by  saying : 

Gentlemen: — I  feel  confident  that  nothing  has  transpired  in  the 
history  of  the  Fairfield  County  Bar  during  my  long  connection  with 
it,  which  has  given  more  pleasure  to  its  members  than  the  oppor- 
tunity which  this  occasion  affords,  to  express  to  our  Chief  Justice 
on  the  eve  of  his  retirement,  our  high  appreciation  of  those  exalted 
qualities  which  characterize  and  adorn  his  life,  and  which  has  made 
him  so  eminently  useful  and  so  universally  esteemed,  and  our  deep 
regret  that,  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness  and  in  the  full  possession 
of  all  his  intellectual  powers,  he  is  com])elled  to  retire  from  his  high 
official  station  and  discontinue  his  invaluable  services  under  the  stern 
provisions  of  our  Constitution,  which  makes  70  years  of  age  the 
limit  of  judicial  life  in  Connecticut. 

I  assure  you,  gentlemen,  it  afi'ords  me  unfeigned  pleasure  to  as- 
semble with  you  around  this  festive  board  and  unite  with  our  dis- 
tinguished friends.  His  Excellenc}-,  the  Governor  of  the  State  of 
Connecticut;  FRs  Honor,  the  Chief  Justice  elect,  and  his  honorable 
associates  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  the  distinguished  Judge  of  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  district  of  Connecticut ; 
the  Judges  of  our  Superior  Court  and  of  other  courts,  and  other 
otficials  who  have  honored  us  with  their  presence,  in  paying  this 
well-merited  tribute  of  respect  to  one  who  so  emiently  deserves  it. 

From  the  time  of  a  generation  at  least  Judge  Seymour  has  been 
a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  civil,  political,  judicial  and,  I  may 
say,  religious  constellations  of  the  State.  He  has  deservedly  won  for 
himself  a  name  that  will  be  known,  honored  and  loved,  not  only  in 
his  day  and  generation,  but  so  long  as  the  public  records  endure. 

There  is  no  human  standard  by  which  we  can  measure  the  exact 
amount  of  good  which  results  to  a  State  from  a  busy,  active  and 
well  spent  life  in  the  public  service  Even  the  great  Amazon  is 
swallowed  tip  in  the  l)osom  of  the  fathomless  deep;  nevertheless  its 
influence,  unmeasured  and  immeasurable  in  all  its  magnitude  and 
power  is  there,  and  the  great  ships  which  float  the  treasures  of  the 
nations  on  "(  )I(1  (Jcean"  float  more  or  less  securely,  however  un- 
consciousl}',  upon  the  foundations,  which  this  mighty  river  has  con- 
tributed to  establish  and  maintain  ;  so,  though  we  cannot  define  with 


33-  IJTCIII'IKI.D   COUNTY    UKXCII   AND   BAR 

mathematical  jirecision  the  exact  quantity  of  good,  which  has  re- 
sulted to  our  commonwealth  and  its  citizens  from  the  eminent  ser- 
vices of  our  distinguished  friend,  yet  no  one  will  doubt  but  his  long, 
active  and  useful  life  spent  in  the  administration  of  the  local  affairs 
of  his  immediate  neighborhood — in  the  advocacy  of  the  rights  of  the 
citizens  at  the  Bar — in  the  promotion  of  the  public  weal  in  the 
councils  of  the  State  and  nation — ^and  in  the  maintenance  of  the  great 
principles  of  justice  and  equity,  according'  to  established  authority 
ui)on  the  Bench,  have  greatl}'  contributed  to  the  stabilit}'  and  pros- 
perity of  our  institutions  and  given  additional  security  to  the  rights 
of  person  and  property  so  eminently  and  so  universally  enjoyed. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  have  been  honored  with  the  personal 
acquaintance  and  1  believe  friendship  of  eight  of  the  predecessors 
of  our  Chief  Justice  in  that  high  office — Hosmer,  Daggett,  Williams, 
Church,  \\'aite,  Storrs,  Hinuian,  Jiutler — glorious  names !  They 
were  all  high-minded,  learned,  impartial  judges,  uncorrupted — in- 
corruptible !  They  have  gone  down  to  their  graves  crowned  with 
honors,  haviug  trausmitted  the  ermine  of  the  judicial  robes  spotless 
and  when  that  emblem  of  purity  and  incorruptibility  fell  upon  the 
shoulders  of  him  who  now  so  gracefully  wears  it — if  touched  itofhiiig 
less  spotless.  He  will  soon  transmit  it  to  his  successor  stainless,  to 
be  borne  by  him  through  his  judicial  life  uusoiled  and  then  trans- 
mitted in  all  purity  to  another,  thence  to  descend  from  generation  to 
generation,  1  hope  to  the  latest  generation  of  man,  without  a  spot 
or  blemish. 

It  would  aft'ord  uie  great  pleasure  to  dwell  for  a  few  moments, 
did  tiuie  permit,  upon  the  many  virtues  which  embellish  and  adorn 
the  private  life  of  our  Chief  Justice  ;  to  s])eak  of  his  devotion  to  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  his  family  and  friends — of  his  tender  sym- 
j)athies  with  the  unfortunate  and  afflicted,  of  his  gentlemanly  deport- 
ment everywhere  and  on  all  occasions,  of  his  manly  practice  at  the 
Bar,  of  his  patience  and  suavity  on  the  L'ench,  of  his  liospitalitw  his 
generosity,  his  integrity,  his  incorru])tibility — ^but  time  fails  me. 
I  can  only  say  that  in  all  the  relations  of  private  life.  Judge  Seyuiour 
has  been  and  is  the  Christian  gentleuian,  acknowledged  and  appreci- 
ated as  such  by  all  who  know  him  most,  b_v  those  who  know  him  best. 

Daniel  Webster,  speaking  of  himself  at  a  public  dinner  given  him 
in  the  city  of  Boston  some  years  since,  said:  "If  public  life  has  its 
cares  and  trials,  it  sometiuies  has  its  consolations;  if  the  approliation 
of  the  good  is  fit  to  be  pursued,  it  is  fit  to  be  enjoyed  ;  if  it  be.  as 
it  undoubtedly  is,  one  of  the  most  stirring  and  invigorating  motives 
which  can  operate  ui)()n  the  mind,  it  is  also  among  the  richest  re- 
wards which  can  console  and  gratify  the  heart." 

In  the  s])irit  of  these  sentiments  of  this  pre-eminently  distinguish- 
ed statesman — in  the  name  of  the  Fairfield  County  Bar — in  the 
presence  of  this  large  circle  of  distinguished  friends,  and  from  the 
lowest  (le])ths  of  my  heart,  let  me  sav  to  you,  Mr.  Chief  Justice,  in 
conclusion,  you  ]ia\-e  cx]ierienccd  the  cares  and  trials  of  public  life; 


JUDGK    SEYMOUR  S   RESPONSE  333 

you  have  secured  the  approbation  of  the  good ;  you  have  won  a 
crown;  it  is  fit  that  you  should  enjoy  it.  Console  and  gratify  your 
heart  with  this  rich  reward  and  when  \ou  ascend  from  your  present 
high  position  to  the  bosom  of  your  family  and  to  the  circle  of  your 
loving  and  beloved  friends,  there  to  enjoy  the  honored  evening  of 
your  useful  life  in  tranquil  repjose,  may  the  soul  stirring  and  invig- 
ating  consolation  cheer  and  animate  you  to  your  latest  breath,  intensi- 
fied with  the  comfortable  hope  that  beyond  there  is  prepared  an.  im- 
mortal crown,  which  neither  time  nor  Constitution  can  take  away. 

Chief  Justice  Seymour  responded  to  the  toast  "Our  Chief  Justice" 
as   follows  : 

I  stand  here  to-night  on  the  eve  of  separation  from  pursuits  to 
which  during  a  long  life  I  have  been  devoted.  I  have  enjoyed  my 
])rofessional  life  at  the  P)ar  and  on  the  Bench,  and  I  do  not  and  cannot 
look  with  indilTerence  upon  my  approaching  separation  from  these 
duties. 

I,  however,  make  no  quarrel  with  the  constitutional  provisi(^n 
under  which  my  retirement  takes  ])lace  "The  days  of  our  age  are 
three  score  _\ears  and  ten  ;"  when  those  years  are  accomplished,  na- 
tr.re  craves  a  brief  period  of  repose  between,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
active  duties  of  life  and  its  final  close  on  the  other. 

I  submissively  bow.  therefore,  to  the  law  of  the  land,  believing 
it  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  law  of  nature,  but  at  the  time  I  cberisli 
the  memories  of  professional  life,  and  part  from  it  with  f(Mul  regret, 
and  I  will  occupy  your  time  a  few  moments  this  evening  in  suggest- 
ing some  i)articulars  wherein  the  lawyer's  life  among  the  varied 
pursuits  of  mankind  is  regarded  by  me  as  a  favored  one. 

I  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  m\  native  County  of  Litchfield  in 
1826,  and  1  at  once  found  myself  in  possesion  of  a  privilege  which 
I  then  thought  might  be  peculiar  to  myself,  but  which  I  afterwards 
found  was  common  to  all  young  lawvers. — the  privilege  of  fellow- 
ship on  free  and  easy  terms  with  the  elder  brethren.  I  well  remem- 
b-er  the  pleasure  of  these  associations  and  the  help  I  derived  from 
them.  It  is  pleasant  to  recall  the  names  of  the  giants  in  those  days, 
when  I  was  a  stripling.  Bacon,  ]\riner.  Huntington.  Beers,  Board- 
man,  the  Churches,  Smith.  A\'hen  I  found  myself  in  a  snarl,  and  that 
happened  to  me  semi-daily.  T  always  found  relief  in  the  ready  and 
cheerfully-given  counsel  of  these  my  venerable  seniors. 

It  is  truth  familiar  to  us  all  that  lawyers,  young  and  old,  high 
and  low.  rich  and  poor,  associate  together  with  great  freedom,  not 
])erhaps  that  we  love  one  another  more  than  the  medical  facult\'.  but 
our  Imsiness  bring's  us  constantly  into  association  with  our  brethren, 
our  labors  arc  not  isolated  but  performed  in  public  and  in  each 
other's  company,  whereby  we  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
each  other.  Xo  man  can  conduct  a  comulicated  cause  in  court  with- 
out showing  his  brethreii  what  manner  of  man  he  is.  If  he  has  mind 
industrv.  learning  and  culture,  he  shows  it ;  his  temper  and  disposi- 
tion will  show  themselves.     If  he  has  inteoTitv  and  truthfulness  in 


334  IJTCIIFIELD   COUNTY   LEXCII   AND   ISAR 

liini,  they  will  appear.  If  on  the  contrary,  he  is  a  sham,  everybody 
will  see  it.  The  practice  of  clianging'  partners  as  associate  counsel, 
brings  lawyers  into  the  most  intimate  relation  with  each  other. 

It  is  amusing"  to  notice  gentlemen  who  are  opposed  to  each  other 
in  the  morning  almost  to  personal  altercation,  in  the  afternoon  en- 
g"ag"ed  as  associates,  and  at  once  as  familiar  and  intimate  with  each 
other  as  the  Siamese  twins.  We  become,  therefore,  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  each  other  and  wear  no  masks  in  each  other's 
society. 

In  this  connection,  if  time  allowed,  I  would  like  to  describe  the 
bar  meetings  of  olden  time  which  had  a  lingering  existence  50  years 
ago,  but  those  old-fashioned  gatherings  could  not  be  conducted  on 
temperance  principles  and  ui').:in  the  advent  of  the  temperance  re- 
formation, they  "took  the  chills"  and  died  out.  iUit  the  attraction 
of  the  profession  lies  in  the  inherent  dignity  of  the  law  itself,  con- 
trolling as  it  does  by  its  silent  power,  the  moving  masses  in  all  their 
various  relations  and  interests — in  the  equity,  calm  wisdom  and  dis- 
passionate justice  of  its  precepts — in  its  noble  history  in  the  past 
and  in  the  services  and  accomplishments  of  its  living  professors. 

The  l)ar  has  alwa}s  drawn  to  itself  the  best  talent  and  highest 
culture  of  the  country,  and  hence  the  contests  of  the  Bar  conducted 
by  skillful  and  learned  counsel,  furnj-li  scenes  of  instructive  interest. 
The  marvelous  and  varied  pov/'-rs  of  the  human  mind  are  in  these 
contests  called  for  and  developed  in  a  manner  and  to  an  extent 
unequaled  in  any  other  arena. 

I  readilv  recall  man\-  such  scenes  as  livelv  and  dramatic  as  the 
inventions  of  Shakespeare's  genius.  I  would  not  be  understood 
however,  as  saying  that  the  court  room  is  exactly  paradise  regained. 
The  scenes  are  generally  animated,  spirited  and  varied ;  sometimes, 
however,  dull  and  stupid ;  sometimes  disg-ustinc>-,  exhibiting  human 
nature  of  its  most  revolting  form  and  the  members  of  the  liar  have 
much  thankless  labor,  many  sleepless  nights  and  bitter  disappoint- 
ments. 

But  it  is  in  his  library  that  the  true  disciple  of  the  law  finds  his 
liighest  satisfaction.  He  can  here  interrogate  the  masters  of  juris- 
prudence, ancient  and  modern  upon  th.e  matters  he  has  in  hand,  and 
will  seldom  fail  of  getting  an  appropriate  answer.  I  yield  no  blind 
obedience  to  authorities  and  precedents.  Law  is  a  progressive 
science.  \\'iicn  it  is  said  that  law  is  the  perfection  of  reason,  it  is 
not  to  be  understood  that  all  the  utterance  of  judges  and  jurists  are 
'  such.  There  are  mistakes  and  errors  in  the  ])ast  that  the  present 
may  correct,  and  there  are  mistakes  and  errors  in  the  i)resent  whicli 
it  is  to  be  hojied  the  future  will  correct,  but  taken  as  a  whole  a  law- 
library  is  re]ilete  with  sound  truths  ai>]^licable.  more  or  less  directly, 
to  the  various  living  issues  pending  before  the  courts,  not  mere  ab- 
stract truths  worked  out  in  the  closet,  but  truths  ujion  which  learned 
arguments  have  been  heard  at  the  I'ar.  and  learned  consultations 
had  b\-  the  Bench,   so  that  all  available  learning  on  the  subject  is 


G.    II.    IIOI.LISTKR  S  ADDRESS  335 

brought  forward  and  receives  its  due  weight.  It  is  difficult  to  over- 
estimate the  vahie  tif  the  well  weighed  opinions  of  such  chancellors 
as  Hardwick,  Eldon  and  Kent,  and  of  such  Judges  as  ]\lansfield, 
Kllenborough  and  ^larshall. 

Among-  the  most  cherished  memories  of  my  professional  life  is 
the  intimate  acquaintance  which  I  have  enjoyed  with  all  the  eminent 
jurists  who  have  adorned  the  bench  of  the  State  during-  the  fifty 
years.  I  need  not  recite  their  familiar  names  in  this  assembly,  but 
}ou  will  permit  me,  occupying-  the  position  I  do.  to  repeat  the  names 
of  those  who  have  filled  the  high  office  I  am  about  to  lay  down, 
iioiiiiiia  clara  each  of  which  upon  bare  mention  suggests  all  the 
virtues  jiertaining  to  their  high  judicial  position. 

When  I  came  to  the  liar  the  Chief  Justiceship  was  held  1)y  the 
learned  Hosmer  followed  in  quick  succession  by  Daggett,  Williams, 
Church.  W'aite.  Storrs.  and  Hinman.  and  then  b}'  my  immediate 
predecessor,  the  lamented  Butler,  companion,  friend,  brother.  In 
this,  his  native  county,  he  needs  no  eulog_\"  from  me.  In  the  reports 
of  his  judicial  opinions  he  has  raised  to  himself  a  monument  acre 
pcrmiiiis.  Allow  me.  in  conclusion,  to  propose  as  a  toast.  "The 
memory  of  the  lionored  dead  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  this  State." 

The  toast  "The  liar  of  Litchfield  County"  was  responded  to  by 
lion.  Gideon  H.  Ilollister.  as   follows: 

It  is  difficult  to  name  a  portion  of  this  Continent  that  might  with 
more  propriety  have  been  called  a  -wilderness  than  was  Litchfield 
Coimty  at  the  time  of  its  first  settlement,  nearly  a  century  after 
Hartford  was  founded.  The  site  of  the  present  village  of  Litchfield 
was  overgrown  with  alder.  It  needed  an  emigrant's  faith  to  foresee 
the  changes  that  human  industry  under  the  guidence  of  good  prin- 
ci])les  could  bring  about  in  the  face  of  wintry  skies  and  in  defiance 
of  steep  hills. 

In  1772,  about  fifty  _\ears  after  the  organization  of  the  town. 
Tapi)ing  Reeve,  son  of  a  clergyman  of  lirookhaven.  established  him- 
self in  this  remote  and  obscure  place  which  had  nothing  but  a  Cotu't 
House,  Jail  and  ?yleeting  House  to  form  a  centre  for  the  few  tcnvns 
that  clustered  around  it.  He  could  not  have  driven  to  the  village 
in  a  carriage  to  save  his  life,  for  two  reasons  there  were  no  wheeled 
vehicles  and  had  there  been  any.  there  were  no  roads  that  could  have 
been  safely  traversed  b_\-  them.  This  interesting  adventurer  was  a 
graduate  of  Princeton,  and  was  then  only  twenty-eight  years  old. 
He  was  a  delicately  formed  slender  man  of  classical  features,  pale 
complexion  and  large  liright  eyes.  With  him  v.-ent  Sally  Burr,  his 
\\-\ic.  daughter  of  President  Burr  of  Princeton,  sister  of  Aaron  Burr, 
and  grand-daughter  of  Jonathan  Edwards — one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful and  accomplished  women  of  her  time.  They  took  up  their  abode 
In  South  Street,  in  a  house  where  I  sju^nt  four  happy  years  and 
which  now  lielcngs  to  Judge  Woodrufl',  who  is  our  distinguished 
guest  this  evening.  ]N[r.  Reeve  established  himself  here  as  a  lawver 
and  soon  attained  to  the  highest  distinction  in  his  profession.     After 


33^  I.ITCIIFIKI.I)    COUNTY   UL:XCII   AND   J'.AR 

continuing-  in  it  for  twelve  years,  in  1784.  when  the  Revolutionarv 
\\a.v  was  scarcely  over,  he  instituted  the  Litchfield  Law  School  in 
which  he  was  the  sole  instructor  until  1797,  a  ])eriod  of  fourteen 
years,  when  he  associated  with  him  James  Gould,  who  was  after- 
wards so  renowned  in  the  histor_\-  of  American  jurisprudence.  This 
school  educated  young  men  from  all  parts  of  the  Union,  among 
whom  were  John  C.  Calhoun,  Levi  Woodbury,  John  Al.  Clayton, 
Roger  S.  Baldwin,  v'^amuel  S.  Phelps,  Nathaniel  Smith.  William 
Elliot,  Origen  S.  Seymour,  Lewis  1>.  Woodruff.  Truman  Smith  and 
other  distinguished  men,  whose  names  have  shed  lustre  upon  the  an- 
nals of  our  countr_\-.  Two  of  these  graduates  have  been  judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  fifty  of  them  members  of 
Congress,  forty  have  been  judges  of  the  highest  State  courts  and 
several  have  been  foreign  and  Cabinet  ministers. 

Tapping  Reeve  was  not  a  mere  pedagogue,  nor  was  he  a  mere 
lawyer.  He  was  a  man  of  genius,  and  in  middle  age  when  his 
feelings  were  enlisted  in  the  trial  of  a  cause,  he  often  exhibited 
powers  of  eloquence,  which  from  the  suddenness  with  which  they 
flashed  upon  the  minds  of  his  audience  and  from  his  impassioned 
manner,  ])r(jduced  an  overwhelming  eft'ect.  He  was  very  unequal 
in  the  exhibition  of  his  ]x)wers.  He  was  a  man  of  ardent  temper- 
ament, tender  sensibilities  and  of  a  nature  deeply  religious.  His 
sympathies  led  him  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  op]:)ressed  and  help- 
less. He  was  the  first  eminent  lawyer  in  this  country  who  dared  to 
arraign  the  common  law  of  England  for  its  severity  and  refined 
cruelty  in  cutting  oft'  the  natural  rights  of  married  women,  and 
placing  their  property  at  the  mercy  of  their  husbands  to  squander 
it  at  pleasure.  His  sentiments  did  not  at  first  meet  with  nnich 
lavor,  but  he  lived  long  enough  to  sec  them  gain  a  foot  hold  in  this 
and  other  States.  His  principles  did  not  die  with  him.  but  are  per- 
])etuated  in  his  "Domestic  Ivclations,"  and  in  the  jurisprudence  of 
his  countr}'.  He  was  an  ardent  Revolutionary  patriot  of  the  Federal 
school.  His  fervent  ])iety,  well-timed  charities,  noble  impulses, 
thoroughness.  simi)licit_\-  of  character,  and  disinterestedness  all  served 
to  render  him  a  general  favorite  in  a  widely-extended  circle  of 
friends  and  accjuaintances.  He  died  in  1823.  in  the  80th  year  of  his 
age.     Such  was  the  head  and  founder  of  the  Litchfield  liar. 

The  next  distinguished  member  of  this  liar  if  we  are  to  follow 
the  order  of  l)irth,  was  .Xndrew  .Adams,  born  in  I73^>.  who  was 
successive!}-  King's  Attorney,  member  of  Congress  and  Chief  Judge. 
He  was  a  man  of  clear  mind  and  of  great  learning.  After  him 
Afajor-Ceneral  I'riali  Trac\-.  born  in  1755.  From  1706  to  1807  he 
was  a  Senator  from  Connecticut,  leader  of  tlie  Federal  ])ari\-,  an 
intimate  friend  of  Hamilton.  Fisher  Ames  and  Aforris,  and  was  a 
man  of  great  legal  acumen  and  ]^articularly  famed  for  his  wit. 

Then  UjIIows  Col.  Ei)hriain  l\irl)y.  born  at  Litchfield  in  1757,  an 
ofTicer  in  the  Revolutionary  arm\-  wlio  carried  to  his  grave  a  frightful 
\\-riund   lliat   he   received   in   tiie   strn^'o-Ie.     He   was   a    faithful    and 


G.  H.  IIOLLISTER  S  ADDRESS  337 

accurate  lawyer.  In  1789.  he  published  a  volume  of  "Reports  oi' the 
Supreme  Court  of  Errors."  This  was  the  first  volume  of  law  re- 
ports ever  published  on  this  continent.  Upon  the  organization  of 
Lousiana,  he  was  appointed  by  President  Jefferson  a  judge  of  the 
newly  acquired  territory  of  Orleans,  and  died  on  his  way  to  his  place 
of  destination  in  the  48th  year  of  his  age. 

After  him  in  the  order  of  birth  comes  Xathaniel  Smith,  who  was 
born  about  the  year  1763  and  who,  after  severe  struggles  with  pov- 
erty and  imperfect,  earlv  education,  rose  so  rapidly  in  his  profession 
that  soon  after  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  under  Judge  Reeve, 
he  was  sitting  by  his  master's  side  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Errors.  Jndge  Church  and  Judge  Williams  have  both 
told  me  that  he  was  in  their  opinion  the  most  gifted  man  ever  l)orn 
in  the  State.  I  will  not  attempt  any  sketch  of  him,  but  if  you  will 
allow  me  I  will  quote  a  passage  from  a  letter  written  to  me  by  David 
S.  Boardman  who  knew  ]^Ir.  Smith  and  how  to  estimate  him.  He 
says : 

"His  voice  was  excellent,  being  both  powerfid  and  harmonious, 
and  never  broke  under  any  exertion  of  its  capacity.  His  manner 
was  verv  ardent  and  the  seeming  dictate  of  a  strong  conviction  of 
justice  of  his  cause,  and  his  gestures  were  the  natural  expression  of 
stich  a  conviction.  ^Ir.  Smith's  style  was  pure  and  genuine  Saxon, 
with  no  attempt  at  classic  ornament  or  allusion.  His  train  of 
reasoning  was  lucid  and  direct,  and  evincive  of  the  fact  that  the 
whole  of  it  was  like  a  map  s])read  out  in  his  mind's  eye  from  the 
[beginning.  His  integrity  was  always  felt  and  dreaded  by  his  op- 
]H:)nent.  He  spoke  with  nnich  fluency  but  with  no  undue  rapidity, 
he  never  hesitated  or  haggled  at  a  word,  nor  did  he  ever  tire  his 
attdiencc  with  undue  ]:)rolixity  :  or  omit  to  do  justice  to  his  case  for 
fear  of  tiring  them  :  and  indeed  there  was  little  danger  of  it.'' 

There  is  only  one  brief  specimen  of  the  style  of  this  eloquent 
man  handed  down  to  tis.  This  is  a  part  of  his  argument  in  the  case 
of  Jedediah  Strong  and  \\\ie  before  the  General  Assembly,  and 
which  is  to  be  found  in  a  volume  of  our  reports.  In  arguing 
against  the  theory  advocated  by  Judge  Reeve  in  favor  of  married 
women,  he  took  the  opposite  or  common  law  ground  and  expressed 
himself  as   follows : 

"But  the  manners  have  led  the  law  and  the  law  the  manners, 
until  every  barrier  is  broken  down  and  we  seem  about  to  bury  in 
oblivion  forever  the  rule  that  the  wife  has  no  separate  existence." 

Last  in  order  of  birth  of  the  truly  great  men  who  can  be  partic- 
ularly dwelt  upon  in  this  hurried  outline,  is  James  Gould,  born  at 
Branford  in  1770.  and  one  of  the  most  elegant  scholars  and  terse 
writers  who  have  adorned  the  profession  in  this  country.  He 
studied  law  imder  Judge  Reeve,  and  joint  professor  and  delivered 
lectures  to  the  students  in  this  institution  iov  thirty-five  vears  :  at 
the  end  of  which  time,  there  had  been  educated  at  the  Litchfield 
Law  School  one  thousand  and  twenty-five  lawyers   from  all  parts 


33i^  1JTCIIFJ];I,D    COL'^'TV    JiKXCIL   AND   LAR 

of  the  L'niied  States.  Gould's  i)leading  is  one  of  the  most  con- 
densed and  critical  pieces  of  composition  to  be  found  in  our  lan- 
guage and  is  of  an  original  character.  He  had  at  first  contemplated 
a  more  extended  treatise,  but  while  he  was  preparing  material  for  it, 
the  anmuniccnicnt  of  Chitt_\''s  work  on  the  same  title  induced  him 
to  change  !iis  ])lan.  As  it  was  presented  to  the  public,  Gould's 
"Pleading"  is  therefore  only  a  summary  of  the  original  design  but 
for  clearness  and  logical  percision  it  is  surpassed,  if  at  all,  onlv 
by  the  Commentaries  tju  the  laws  of  England. 

Judge  Gould  carried  to  the  liar  the  same  classical  finish  which 
appears  in  his  writings.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  him 
to  speak  an  ungrammatical  sentence,  use  an  ineleg'ant  expression 
or  make  an  awkward  gesture.  His  arguments  were  expressed  in 
the  most  brief  forms  in  which  a  speaker  can  convey  his  thoughts 
to  his  hearers.  He  seldom  spoke  longer  than  half  an  hour,  and  in 
the  most  complex  and  important  cases  never  exceeded  an  hour. 
He  could  shoot  a  quiver  full  of  shafts  wdthin  the  circle  of  the  target 
with  such  certainty  and  force  that  they  could  all  be  found  and 
counted  when  the  contest  was  over. 

As  a  Judge,  his  opinions  are  unsurpassed  b_\'  any  wdiich  appear 
in  our  reports  for  clearness  and  that  happy  moulding  of  thought 
so  peculiar  to  him  at  the  Bar  and  in  social  conversation. 

The  position  of  this  eminent  jurist  and  his  venerable  master 
and  associate,  was  trul\'  enviable.  To  them  fiocked  from  every 
State  in  the  Union  the  youth  who  were  to  shape  the  jurisprudence 
of  the  western  world.  They  looked  upon  these  renovvmed  teachers 
with  as  nuich  reverence  as  the  }oung  men  of  Athens  regarded  the 
philosophers  who  prepared  their  minds  for  the  strifes  of  the  Agora, 
the  debates  of  the  council  or  the  shades  of  contemplative  retirement. 

As  I  have  before  said,  all  attempts  at  particular  description  of 
the  members  of  the  Litchfield  Bar,  must  end  here.  I  might  speak 
of  John  Allen,  Gov.  John  Cotton  Smith,  Holmes,  Boardman,  Hunt- 
ington, llenedict,  Sterling,  Swan,  Asa  Bacon,  Samuel  and  Leman 
Church,  Alills,  rheli)S.  Minor,  Strong  and  others — and  but  for 
the  ])resence  in  \\'hich  1  stand.  I  might  attempt  some  brief  sketch 
of  the  character  and  career  of  the  venerable  man  whose  retiracy 
froiu  public  life  has  been  the  occasion  of  this  meeting,  which,  though 
a  festival  in  form,  has  suft'used  our  eyes  wUh  tears.  I  am  one  of  hi'^ 
oldest  students  here  ])resent  and  have  known  him  well.  You  will 
all  join  mc  in  the  prayer  that  his  declining  years  may  be  like  his 
l^rofessional  and  judicial  life,  serene  as  they  are  pure,  and  that  no 
clouds  of  sorrnw  nia\-  settle  down  between  him  and  a  better  world. 


22     ^ 


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IIISTUKICAL   NOTES  3^9 

WATERTOWN  MURDER  TRIAL 


New  principles  of  law  are  presented  in  the  case  of  State  vs. 
William  AlcLanghlin.  who  was  indicted  by  the  Grand  jury  at  the 
April  term,  1908,  for  murder  in  the  first  degree.  The  facts,  over 
which  there  was  no  particular  contest,  were  as  fellows : 

On  the  morning  of  April  12,  1908.  a  few  men  were  gathered 
upon  the  depot  platform  at  W'atertown.  Some  of  them  were  at- 
taches of  the  railroad.  l)ut  most  of  them  were  on  their  way  to 
church.  The  accused,  a  man  of  forty-six  years,  accosted  the  de- 
ceased in  a  manner  which  the  latter  regarded  as  offensive.  Une 
word  led  to  another,  and  the  victim  of  the  tragedy,  Robert  Downs, 
a  yoimg  man  of  nineteen,  pushed  McLaughlin  over  so  that  he  fell 
on  the  platform,  breaking  a  bottle  of  whiskey  which  he  had  in  his 
pocket.  ]More  angry  words  followed,  and  the  combat,  so  far  as  the 
knowledge  of  those  on  the  platform  went,  was  over.  Robert  Downs 
retired  to  a  distance  on  the  westerl}-  side  of  the  depot  platform  from 
where  the  wordy  dispute  took  place,  and  McLaughlin  went  around 
the  opposite  corner  of  the  building  and  threw  out  the  broken  glass 
from  his  pocket,  and  then,  unseen  by  anyone,  drew  a  pocket  knife, 
and  gfiing  up  to  Downs  struck  him  wi'h  it  in  the  neck,  severing  the 
carotitl  artery,  from  which  wound  Downs  died  within  a  lew  minutes. 

The  trial  before  the  Superior  Court  was  at  the  (_)ctol)er  term 
1908,  in  Litchfield,  before  Judge  Kdwin  L>.  Gager,  lasting  into  the 
third  week.  The  prisoner  was  defended  l)y  Thomas  F.  Ryan,  Esq., 
assisted  by  Elbert  P.  Roberts,  Esq.,  both  of  Litchfield.  The  State 
prosecution  was  b\'  State  Attornex'  Donald  T.  Warner,  assisted  by 
Howard  F.  Landon,  Es(|.  The  principal  question  was  as  to  the  de- 
gree of  the  crime,  the  State  contencling-  that  there  was  time  for 
premeditation  and  deliljeration  and  that  all  the  elements  of  murder 
in  the  first  degree  were  present.  The  defense  claimed  that  the 
chronic  alcoholism  of  the  acctised.  as  shown  by  his  previous  history, 
cind  by  the  medical  testimony  of  the  defendant's  expert.  Dr.  John  L. 
I'uel,  rendered  the  accused  incapable  of  the  deliberation  and  pre- 
meditation under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case  necessary  to  con- 
stitute the  crime  of  nnu'der  in  the  first  degree. 

The  jur_\-  after  long  deliberation  returned  a  verdict  of  murder  in 
the  second  degree,  and  the  prisoner  was  sentenced  to  State  Prison 
for  life. 

A\'hile  chronic  alcoholism,  as  a  defense  is  known  in  the  law.  it 
lias  been  so  seldom  resorted  to,  in  cases  of  this  character,  that  un- 
usual interest  was  manifested  by  the  legal  fraternity  in  this  case. 

An  interesting  case  not  heretofore  mentioned,  is  that  connected 
Avith  the  successful  installation  of  The  Xew  Milford  Power  Company. 


340  I.ITCIIFIKLU    COUNTY   BI^XCII   AND   BAR 

NEW  MILFORD  POWER  CO. 

About  l\\ent_\-hve  years  ag'o  the  JI(jn.  Nicholas  Staul),  of 
New  Milford  and  a  former  Comptroller  of  the  State,  conceived  the 
idea  that  the  great  water  power  of  the  Housatonic  river  oug'ht  to  be 
utilized.  He  interested  a  few  other  persons  with  him  in  the  matter 
and  they  decided  to  incorijorate  a  company  for  that  purpose,  and  a 
charter  was  granted  l)y  the  General  Assembly  of  1893,  forming  the 
New  Milford  Power  Comj^any.  The  matter  laid  dormant  for  a 
long  time.  There  was  plenty  of  power  in  the  river,  but  there  were 
no  mills  or  factories  requiring  it.  The  scientific  development  of 
electrical  energy  and  more  particularly  the  availibility  of  trans- 
mitting it  without  material  loss  over  long  distances  to  be  applied 
wherever  power  was  required,  opened  up  the  way  for  the  Company 
to  begin  operations.  Alany  hydro-electric  engineers  advised  that 
there  could  not  be  fall  enough  obtained  to  develop  sufficient  power 
to  make  such  a  jilant,  considering  the  large  expense  of  the  trans- 
mission line,  prohtaljle.  Walter  S.  Morton,  an  eminent  hydraulic 
engineer,  now  the  consulting  engineer  of  the  Xew  York  City  Water 
Supply  Commission,  saw  at  once  how  the  power  of  the  water  at 
JJulls  Bridge  could  be  doubled,  and  acting  under  his  suggestions  the 
com])any  proceeded  to  erect  a  small  dam  in  the  g'orge  at  Bulls 
liridge,  and  dug  a  canal  over  two  miles  long  to  convey  the  water 
to  a  point  in  the  town  of  New  Alilford,  where  they  obtained  a  fall 
of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  feet,  with  an  average  of  two  thousand 
horse  power. 

The  incorporators  employed  Frederic  'SI.  Williams,  Esq.,  of  New 
Alilford  to  attend  to  the  legal  part  of  the  business.  The  charter 
liad  to  be  amended,  giving  the  company  various  powers  not  original- 
ly included  therein.  After  the  charter  was  perfected  and  the  stock 
of  $i,ooo.oco.  subscribed,  the  dam  was  built,  the  canal  dug  and  the 
po'wer  house,  with  four  immense  dynamos  was  erected.  These 
were  all  matters  of  mechanism,  but  the  real  interesting  part  to  us 
attorneys  was  the  proceedings  relating  to  the  acquisition  of  the 
flooded  territor}-.  Lands  bordering  on  the  river  suddenly  rose  in 
value,  and  but  little  could  be  ])urcha&ed,  consequently  condenuiation 
])roceedings  under  the  charter  were  instituted  by  'Sir.  Williams,  to 
accpiire  them.  Nothing  like  these  proceedings  appear  upon  our 
records,  in  number  or  in  accuracy.  Committees  were  appointed 
consisting  of  Hon.  Geo.  Al.  Woodruft'  of  Litchfield,  James  Alldis, 
Esq.,  of  Torrington  and  Edwar.d  S.  Roberts.  Esq..  of  North  Canaan, 
anil  long  hearings  were  had  before  these  gentlemen,  and  it  is  an  in- 
teresting fact  that  no  exceptions  were  taken  during  the  three  weeks 
of  the  hearings  by  either  jiarty.  The  report  of  the  Committee  was 
accepted  by  the  Suj^erior  Court,  and  no  appeal  was  carried  in  any 
case  to  the  Sujjremc  Court  of  Errors.  Lines  of  wire  were  erected 
and  ])(i\\er  successfully  transmitted  to  Waterbury,  and  other  cities. 
Several  electric  roads  are  run  by  it.  and  ultimatelx'  the  New  York 
and  New  Haven  and  TL'irtfurd  Ixailroad  Comi)any  obtained  the  con- 
trol of  the  ])lant. 


^l^^gi^S^SSSZESEXSS!?^''    1 


A 


S  E  R  M  O.  N ,  I 

^"v  Delivered  at 

I    {L  ITCH  FIELD, 

,  On  the  2**   Day  of     November,    A.  D.    176^       "  .[| 

« 

On  the  Day  of  ilic  Execution  of 

JOHN    .  J  AC  OB  S, 

jH     in  An  Indian    Narivc, 

^Jl^  ^^^'Jf^'J'*^^  to   Sentence  of  Death  palTed  upor>|| 
I?*       hiKx.:^"!^  ^)  the  Hon.  Superior  CoLiir,  .^ 


For    the  Murder  of 


i^iiTAMES  CHOC 


^Preached  upon  the  Dcfire  of  theCrimin  il,  ajid 
\      ptibliOitd  at  the  requeft   of  foiiic.jpl^ 

Hearers.  '  ^r    -.- 

. — __=« '1^?  ,  f  '■-r 

^  By  TIMOTHY  PITKIN,  A.l^''v^V| 
*aftor   of    tl»e     firft   Church    in    F'ir^ffgtCft'Q 


nou  /J)ctll  not  kill. 


Sixth   Cot«iMAHi>\, 


•^••%^ 


'^      "  H  A  R  r  F  0  R  j)i<i:C:'T , 

[Printed  by  Green  &■  JVat/of^'ntKr   the  Crc»t| 

Bridge.; 


fi^tPiS?--"  a»^'i7Ti^:r%r:"i-v-''»- 


L.^»;:4Xi.'^^:^. 


^ 


.4 


(Reprciduction  of  title  pai^-e  of  sermon) . 


OLD  SKKMOX  341 

OLD  SERMON 

The  compiler  has  in  his  Hbrary  a  copy  of  a  sermon  dehvered  at 
Litchfield,  in  November.  1768,  on  the  execution  of  John  Jacobs  for 
murder  of  James  Chockrer.  both  Indian  natives,  the  title  page  of 
\\hich  is  herewith  reproduced.  This  is  the  first  trial  for  murder  in 
the  county,  and  nuist  have  been  of  unusual  interest  to  have  called 
forth  a  sermon  from  so  eminent  a  divine  as  Timothy  Pitkin,  pastor 
of  the  Church  at  Farmington.  1  will  quote  a  few  choice  extracts 
therefrom. 

The  text  was : 

NUMP.KRS  XXX\;  16. 

And  if  iiiv  S-Mitk  hi.m  with  ax  Ixstrumext  of  IROX,  (so 
THAT  HE  DIE)    HE   IS  A   MPRDKRER:     The   ]\1ukdeker   shall 

SLRELV  BE  PL'T  TO  DEATH. 

After  a  lonj^-sermon  on  the  text  addressed  to  "Men  and  Brethren." 
and  ending-  with  "'There  is  no  way  for  sinners,  but  to  repair  to 
Christ ;  to  Christ  we  must  go,  or  to  hell,"  the  learned  Divine  pro- 
ceeds, "My  discourse  now  turns  to  the  poor  prisoner,  under  sen- 
tence of  death," — with  the  following  soothing  language,  "JOHX 
JAC(  )\\S.  It  was  your  request,  that  this  last  advice,  by  me  should 
be  given  to  you,  and  therefore  by  help  of  divine  grace,  I  shall  speak 
to  you,  with  great  ])lainess,  and  O  !  that  1  may  address  you,  with 
that  w^armth  and  faith  fullness,  which  your  present  case  calls  for; 
this  lieing  the  last  sermon  you  will  ever  hear. 

"When  1  see  a  poor  criminal,  under  sentence  of  death,  when  I 
view  your  aggravated  crimes,  and  you  standing  upon  the  edge  of 
time,  and  just  launching  into  an  unalterable  and  eternal  state;  O! 
prisoner  what  shall  I  say  to  you !  C) !  my  hearers,  what  words  shall 
}'Our  preacher  choose ! 

Prisoner,  attend !  The  great  God  hath  made  a  law,  that  he  that 
shcddcth  mail's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed.  And  in  our 
text,  //  one  .s-/7;//(^  another  icith  an  instrument  of  iron,  so  that  he  die, 
he  is  a  murderer,  the  murderer  shall  surely  be  put  to  death.  GOD 
had  an  infinite  authority  to  make  this  law,  and  annex  this  penalty ; 
and,  JOHX,  this  is  your  case:  you  smote  one  of  your  fellow  crea- 
tures in  malice  and  rage,  zcith  an  instrument  of  iron  so  that  he  died : 
therefore  vou  are  a  murderer,  and  vou  stand  eliar Liable  with  guilt 
of  blood,  'tis  just  that  you  be  put  to  death,  for  b}'  the  statute  of 
heaven,  bv  the  law  of  G(  )D,  vou  ought  to  die. 

Prisoner,  attend!  You  deserve  to  sufifer  the  eternal  pains  of 
hell,  it  is  just  in  God  to  send  you  to  the  hopeless  regions  of  the 
danuied  ;  you  was  a,  sinner  and  have  been  a  ]irayerless  malicious 
creature,  therefore  GOD,  against  whom  you  have  sinned  and  whose 
laws  you  have  violated,  may  justly  damn  you."  There  is  a  consider- 
able more  of  this  kind  of  consolation. 


34-2  IjTCllFDaD    COLNTV    DUNCII   AND   BAR 

TRUMAN  SMITH 

The  biog'raphical  notes  on  Truman  Smith,  whicli  I  have  hereto- 
fore given,  were  prepared  by  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Xew  York 
City,  who  had  been  associated  with  ]\Ir.  Smith  in  his  practice,  and 
mostlv  relate  to  matters  outside  of  Litchfield  County.  The  Humas- 
ton  case,  however,  was  one  in  which  the  plaintitf.  Mr.  Humaston, 
was  a  native  of  Litchfield,  and  was  in  the  cni])l()y  of  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company  when  he  invented  a  process  of  sending 
a  number  of  messages  simultaneous  u])on  the  same  wire,  and  the 
Telegraph  Company  claimed  that  it  was  their  pro])erty;  To  prevent 
other  telegraph  companies  from  using  this  invention  they  pensioned 
Mr.  Humaston  during  his  lifetime. 

During  ]\lr.  Smith's  residence  in  Litchfield  he  was  one  of  the 
leading',  if  not  the  leading  lawyer  in  Litchfield  County,  in  certain 
classes  of  cases,  and  used  the  forcible,  brow-beating  method  of 
trial.  He  was  a  terror  to  witnesses  in  cross-examination,  and  many 
stories  are  told  about  him.  Previous  to  the  great  fire  in  1886  the 
compiler  had  in  his  office  a  massive  cherry  table  which  once  be- 
longed to  Mr.  Smith,  who  frequently  came  into  the  office,  as  he 
visited  Litchfield,  and  would  go  up  to  the  old  table  and  after  ex- 
amining it  a  little  would  say.  "Old  fellow.  T  have  pounded  you  a 
great  many  times !" 

I  well  recollect  the  last  case  which  Mr.  Smith  tried  in  this  court, 
and  probably  the  last  one  he  tried  in  any  court.  It  was  a  case  which 
was  brought  by  Mr.  Cothren  for  some  man  in  \\'oodbury  against 
Mr.  Nathan  Smith  of  Roxbury.  a  brother  of  Truman  Smith.  It 
appeared  during  the  trial  that  the  plaintifi:"  never  authorized  the 
bringing  of  the  suit,  which  was  over  some  very  trivial  dispute  of 
account,  nor  did  the  party  who  was  recognized  to  i:»rosecute.  enter 
into  any  recognizance.  The  case  came  before  Judge  Hovey,  and 
Mr.  Smith  moved  that  it  be  erased  from  the  docket,  and  made  an 
argument  of  about  two  hours  in  sujiport  of  his  motion.  He  was 
then  nearly  eighty  years  old  and  too  infirm  to  stand  during  his  argu- 
ment, so  he  would  stand  part  of  the  tiiue.  then  sit  for  a  time,  and 
never  did  an  attorney  receive  such  a  scoring  as  did  Mr.  Cothren. 
who  withdrew  the  suit.  The  whole  performance  was  the  most  im- 
pressive exhibition  of  ancient  legal  warfare  I  have  ever  witnessed. 

C.  F.  Sedgwick.  Esq.  of  Sharon,  Conn.,  said  in  an  article  in  the 
Leavenworth  C.encalogy.  P.  26.  that  "Up  to  Mr.  Smith's  time,  the 
eminent  men  of  the  county  were  a  kind  of  i)rivileg-ed  class,  neve." 
mingling  with  the  common  people — but  Mr.  Smith  welcomed  to 
his  acquaintance  and  symi:)athy  good  men  of  all  conditions  in  societv 
no  matter  how  humble  or  obscure  the  man  might  be.  He  never  took 
advantage  of  his  social  position  to  obtain  i)referment  for  hnnself — 
never  asked  for  a  nomination — never  solicited  the  vote  of  any  man — ■ 
his  weiLdit  of  character,  eminent  fitness  nnd  great  abilities  ahvavs 
markcfl  him  as  the  man  for  the  place  and  his  nominations  were  made 
with  Li'rerit  unanimit^"." 


GEORGE    C.    IIARRISOX 


];VROX    TLTTI.E 


CHESTERFIELD    C.    :MIL)DLEBR00KS  AXDREAV    G.    BARXES 

TURY  COMMISSIONERS 


JURY  COM-MISSIOXERS  343 

]\Ir.  Smith,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  Hfe.  hved  in  Stamford,  anl 
for  a  number  of  years  was  actively  engaged  in  the  suppression  of 
intoxicating-  Hquors,  writing"  and  pubHshing-  several  pamphlets  re- 
lating- thereto  and  often  appearing  before  the  General  Assemble- 
in  support  of  temperance  legislation. 


Tl'RV  COMMIT SSIOXERS. 

On  page  129  the  method  of  drawing'  jurors  is  outlined.  I  have 
obtained  the  pictures  of  all  of  the  Jury  Commissioners  since  this 
way  of  selecting-  the  Jury  was  ])rovi(le(l  and  who  act  with  the  Clerk 
as  the  board  of  selection  in  July. 

Gkokgk  C.  Hakkiso.v  was  appointed  in  1895  '^^'"^  "^^'^'^  while 
holding-  the  oHice.  February  25th.  1907.  He  was  born  in  Cornwall, 
May  19th,  1840,  and  resided  in  his  native  town  all  his  life,  holding- 
nearly  all  the  honors  its  citizens  could  give  him  regardless  of  party 
in  the  town  oflices.  Was  Judge  of  Probate  many  years.  He  was 
often  appointed  by  this  Court  as  a  Committee  to  lay  out  roads,  ap- 
praise property,  assess  damage,  etc.  .As  a  Jury  Commissioner  he 
was  very  conscientious  and  at  the  sessions  of  the  board  he  always 
had  his  list  carefulK-  marked  and  ch'cked  as  to  the  fitness  of  each 
nominee. 

]'>vi<()X  Tl'TTlk  was  also  ap]iointed  in  1895  '^'^'^  resigned  soon 
after  Mr.  Harrison's  death.  He  was  also  exceedingly  careful  and 
fair  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty.  He  died  in  Plymouth  September 
25.  1908,  aged  83.  He  was  in  early  life  an  active  business  nian  and 
a  noted  manufacturer  of  carriages  which  industry  he  discontinued 
soon  after  the  close  of  the  civil  war.  He  held  many  of  the  most 
important  oHices  of  the  town  of  Plymouth;  Selectnian  and  Judge 
of  Probate.  He  did  a  good  deal  of  law  lousiness  such  as  conveyanc- 
ing, drawing  wills,  contracts  and  the  like.  He  was  especially  fond 
of  assisting  attorneys  in  ])reparing  a  case  for  trial  by  looking  up 
the  evidence,  witnesses  and  exhibits,  and  felt  great  pride  saying  that 
he  never  lost  a  case  that  he  prepared  as  he  desired. 

AxDREw  G.  P).\RXES  was  appointed  Jurv  Comniissioner  in  T()07. 
He  is  a  native  of  Sherman  Conn.,  born  Xoveniber  15th,  1838,  but 
has  resided  in  Xew  Milford  nearly  his  whole  life  where  he  is  an  ex- 
tensive farmer,  dairyman,  cattle  breeder  and  large  grower  of  to- 
bacco. Has  held  man\-  town  ottices  and  represented  New  Milford 
in  the  Legislature  of  1895  «i"*^^  i'J03'  a'lf^  ^^'^s  Senator  of  his  dis- 
trict in  1907,  and  is  re-elected  Senator  for  1909. 

CjiKSTKRFiEi.n  Q.  MiDDLKi'.Rooiv  was  aD])ointe(l  a  Jury  Ccjm- 
missioner  in-  1907.  He  has  been  Sheriff  of  Litchfield  Countv  and 
liossesses  a  large  acquaintance  all  over  the  Comity,  peculiarly 
fiitting  him  for  exercise  of  his  ]-)resent  office. 


344  J.lTCJil'lKLD    COINTV    liKXCII   AND   UAK 

COrXTY  COMMISSIOXERS. 

'i"he  office  of  County  Commissioner  was  established  more  than 
half  a  century  ago  and  a  large  variety  of  duties  are  assigned  to 
them  in  relation  to  County  afifairs,  such  as  providing  for  the  care 
of  the  County  Inuldings,  tlieir  repair,  providing  for  .the  maintenance 
of  the  jail,  etc.  i'robably  their  most  arduous  duty  is  that  relating 
to  the  excise,  or  granting  of  licenses  for  the  sale  of  spirituous  and 
intoxicating  liquors.  Their  salaries  at  present  are  $600  a  year  and 
mileage.  They  hold  their  otlice  for  four  years  from  their  appoint- 
ment.    The  present  Commissioners  are  as  follows 

Hubert  I).  Case,  the  Chairman  is  a  native  of  narkhamsted,  born 
April  3rd.  1856.  He  is  a  merchant,  has  been  a  member  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  from  his  town,  and  has  held  man}'  town  offices.  His 
term  of  office  expires  Uctoljer  i,  191 1. 

Howard  M.  Guernsey  was  born  in  Thomaston  January  9,  1877. 
He  has  been  for  several  years  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  lum- 
ber. His  mills  are  now  in  operation  in  Xew  Hami)shire  and  A  er- 
mont.  He  has  rei)resente(l  Thomaston  in  the  Legislature.  His 
term  of  office  expires  ( )ctober  i,   191 1. 

John  J.  Karl  was  born  in  Goshen,  X\  Y.  ^larch  i,  1864,  but  has 
resided  since  his  bo\hood  in  Litchfield.  He  is  a  teacher,  composer 
£)nd  publisher  of  nuisic.  Js  verv  active  in  political  affairs,  and  is 
Town  Clerk  of  Litchfield,  and  Clerk  of  the  Probate  Court  of  Litch- 
field District.     His  term  of  otlice  expires  October  i,  1913. 


^ 


COURT  MHSSKXGERS 

One  of  the  busy  men  in  Court  is  its  messengers.  The  duties 
are  various,  and  not  defined  by  statute.  The  theory  is  they  are  to 
regulate  the  temperature,  lighting  and  ventilation  of  the  Court 
room  ;  to  get  reference  books  as  required  from  the  library  for  use 
in  the  Court,  and  attenfl  to  the  multitudinous  errands  of  the  lawyers 
engaged  in  the  trial  of  a  cause. 

They  are  appointed  by  and  hold  their  office  during  the  pleasure 
of  the  judge. 

The  present  messengers  are  at  Litchfield,  Chauncey  J.  Buel.  He 
is  also  the  Janitor  of  the  building.  Li  W'insted,  Ur.  Willey  T.  Smith, 
a  dentist  by  profession,  rests  his  nerves  in  the  forensic  eloquence  of 
the  attorneys.  In  New  Milford,  Lewis  W.  Mosher,  a  veteran  of  the 
Civil  war,  enjoys  the  strifes  and  ccnfiicts  of  the  opposing  parties. 


Y, 


O 


J 


o 

I— ( 

c/i 

CO 


JUDGMENT. 

One  hundred  years  have  brought  then'  bloom  and  fruit, 

Since  "every  one  who  had  a  cause  or  suit," 

Might  "come  up  hither"  and  present  his  claim, 

With  no  misgivings,  that,  whoever  came, 

With  a  good  cause,  good  witnesses,  good  men 

Upon  the  bench  as  judges,  and,  again. 

With  twelve  good  honest  jurors;  if  he  saw 

That  well-feed  "counsel  learned  in  the  law," 

Had  courage,  after  half  dozen  hghts. 

Would — stand  an  even  chance  to  get  his  rights. 

And  then  at  least  the  controversy  o'er. 

The  case  all  settled,  to  be  tried  no  more. 

Those  hundred  _\ears,  as  onward  they  have  swept, 

Have  seen  how  calm  the  litigants  have  slept  :— 

Judge,  jury,  counsel,  parties  have  withdrawn. 

And  to  a  higher  bar  together  gone. 

Where  every  right  decree  is  ratified 

And  every  wrong  reversed  and  set  aside. 

John'  Pikrpoxt. 


In  Riv 

IX   TIIi;   MATTKR  OF 
run  LITCIIFIKLD  COUNTY 

Bexcii  and  Bar. 

January  i,  190c) 

Be  it  remembered  that  this  cause  having  been  pending  for  a 
century  and  a  half,  and  the  parties  having  been  duly  heard,  by  their 
witnesses  and  counsel,  and  having  examined  the  foregoing  exhibits, 
which  are  made  a  part  of  this  record.  It  is  considered  and  ordered 
that  the  foregoing  judgment  presented  fifty  years  ago  to  the  citizens 
of  Litchfield  Count}'  by  John   Pierpont  in   his   Centennial   poem  is 

hereby  accepted   and  approved. 

DwiGHT  C.  Kilcourx, 
(  Clerk. 


INDEX 


NAMES 


142,  217 
2\6 

2\7-  336 

123,  217 

124.  218 
92,  105.  293 

174.  218 

124.  218 

123.  218 
218 
218 
340 

13 

219.  2bb 


\2 


/• 


Abernelhy.   Hlisha   S. 
Adam  and  Church 
Adam  and  Eve 

J.  Henry 
Adams.  Andrew 

1 1,  5().  126.  I  V),  181, 

Eliiah 

John   Q. 

jolm  (Juincy 

John 

Samuel 
Addis,  Jolm  F. 
Aiken,  Edmund 

John 
Albro,  John  A. 
Alld.s,  James 
Allen,  Ethan 

Henr\  J. 

John 
II,  28.  45.  56,  62,  126,  218.  338 

John  Wm.  47,  139 

Ames,  Fisher  336 

Andrews,  Charles  B. 

125,  126,  129.  181,  219.  309.  310 

Charles  \\.  221 

Edward  Warren  221 

James  P.  221 

Samuel  James  221 

William  221 

W.  H..  Rev.  221 

Andros,   Sir   Edmund  6 

Annual  hanquets  316,  317 

Ashley,  Tnnothy  146 

Atwood,  C.   B.  124,  221' 

Austin,  Aaron  11,  142,  143,  222 

Ralsamon  C.  222 

Averill.  Roger  108.  222 

Avers,  Russell  W.  222 


Babcock.  Rufus.  Rev.  7 
Bacon,  Asa 

61.  86.  9^7.  134-  ^-2-'.  2>i?>-  338 

Epaphroditus  C.  222 

Gen.   Francis  222 

Backus.   Azel,  D.  D.  23,  33 

Baker,  Willard  124,  222 

Balcomb,  Benjamin,  murder  152 


121,  123,  140.  143. 


G. 


W 


Baldwin.  Birdseye 

Chief  Justice 

Daniel 

George  H. 

George 

Isaac     II 

Isaac  Jr. 

Roger  S. 

Samuel 

\\  illiam 
Ball,  Liuher  T. 
Bancroft.  George 
Barbour,  Henry  S. 

S\lvesier 
Barker,  Prof. 
Barnes,   Andrew 

Eorrin 
Barrett.  John 
Barlow,  Joel 
Bates,  A. 

Robert  C. 
Battell.  Josiah  B. 
Beach,  Jesse 

John  S. 

Supt.,  Geo. 
Beardsley,  Ferris 
Beckwith,  J.  Gail 
Beebe,  Zenas--trial 
Beecher.  Abraham 

Henry  Ward 

Hezekiah 

Rev.  Lyman 

Philemon 

Truman 
Beeman.  Frederick  D. 

126,  139.  226,  262 
Beers.  Frederick 

George  W. 

Lewis  F. 

Seth   P. 

88,  92,  126.  135,  171 
Belden.  Charles  O. 
Bellamv.   Jo'-eph  H.       30.  9^ 

Joseph,   D.   D. 
Benedict.  Amos 

Noah  B. 

29,  56,  S7-  86 

149,  227.  27  X. 

Rev.  Noah 
Bennet,  Milo  L. 
Benton,  Jacob 

Isaac 


II 


o.  - 


221 
12 


12; 


224.  :^i(> 

-'44 
224 

244 
137 

224,  301 
224 
153 
343 
-'^4 
121 
80.  176 

19-'-  22':^ 

225 


156 
154 
150 
225 
148 
225 
182 

2>7 

22- 


123. 


7^■ 


■  S7. 
338 


321.  327 
22^ 
226 
226 

226.  333 

226 

135.  226 

30,  226 

226,  296 


123,  134.  139, 

59 

227 

\22 
21 


ir 


IXUKX 


Berry,    Hcnian 

22-J 

Betts,  John  B. 

227 

Tliaddeus 

78 

Bidwell.  William  W. 

2^1 

Bierce,  William  W. 

124, 

227 

Billings.  X. 

192 

Bills.  Henry  A. 

227 

Brigham.  Judge 

278 

Bion,  Michael--trial 

159 

Bird,  Hon.  John 

227 

Josepli 

3^. 

142 

Bissell.  Daniel 

13 

Edward 

227 

Edward 

124. 

227 

Francis 

123. 

22S 

Governor 

78. 

■     56 

Harry 

322 

Blackman.  Ehenezer  B. 

228 

Blagden,  Col. 

16 

Blake.  Louis  J. 

124. 

228 

Blakeslee.  J.  W. 

228 

Blakeley.  Samuel  C. 

22S 

Blodgeit,  William  H. 

124, 

228 

Boardman.  Daniel.  Rev. 

7 

David  S. — Sketches 

39, 

23^ 

'3-' 


40.  80,  86.  88,  90.  123.  135.  142, 

228.  ,^33.  337,  338 

Elijah  20,  97.  228 

George  S.  97.  22S 

William   W.  22S 

Booth.  Walter  78 

Borjesson.    Andrew — trial  160 

Bosler.  William    1).  123.   228 

Bostwick.   Bushnell  142 

Charles  228 

Joseph  A.  229 

Samuel  123.  229 

Botchford.  Natlian  122 

Botsford.  Henry  A.  127,  229 

Botts.  John  AI.  292 

Boughton.  John  O.  124,  229 

Boyd.  John  229 

Bradley,   Alirahani,  Jr.  23c 

Edward   E.  150 

Phincas  231 

Bradstreet.  Alliert   P.  124.  231 

Brainard,  Cephas  203 

Jeremiah   G.  73.  77.  83 

Brant 17 

Brewster.  Nelson  115.  231 

Breen,  James  T.  231 

Brinsmnde.   Dan'el   X.  123.   143.  231 

Rev.    Daniel  ^3.   231 

Bristol.   Clifford   E.  124.  232 

William  73.   77 

Bronson.    Bennett  232 

Merritt  232 

Brooks.  X'orman  163 

Brown.  Charles  R.  2V2 

John  183 


Brown  Si  111,   Samuel 

Roger 

Buckingham,  Gov.  Wm.  A.  108,  301 

Homer  160 

S.  McLean  124,  233 

Buel,  Dr.  Henry  W.            •  129,   156 

Dr.  John   L.  339 

Xorton  J.  108,   232 

Dr.  William  26 

Bull,  Epaphrus.  W.  232 

Burke,   William  232 

Burr.  Aaron                    44.  182.  191,  335 

Sally                  44.    182.  191.   335 

Burrall.   Porter  109 

William   ^L 

80.   91,    109,    112.    134.  142.    143 
232.  233. 

William    P.  140.    233 

Burrill,   Charles   D.  233 

Burnham.   Oliver  143 

Bushnell,  Horace  139 

Butler,  Calvin             go.   1^4.  142.  233 

Calvin    R.  233 

ALiIciilm   X.  233 

Col.  John  17 

Butler,   Hon.   Thomas   B.  151.  311 

Chief  Justice    loi.  332.  33^ 

Zehulon  17 


Cable.  Cuni^s  W. 
Cady.  Daniel   W. 
Calhoun.  D;i\"id  S. 

[(.Iiii    C. 

\\'illiain 
Camp.  George  W. 

Samuel  G. 
Camden.    Lord 
Canfield.    Ezi"a 

Edwartl    T. 

Henr\  J. 

John 

Joseph 

Judson 


233 

233 

124.  234 

182,  312,   336 

L^2 

234 
124,  234 

73 

234 

124.    125.   234 

234 
26.   53.   126,   234 

123.    234 
123.  143.  234 


Samuel   10.  26.  42.  121.  142.  234 

Col.    Samuel  23^ 

Card.   Albert    M.  235 

Carpenter,  Judge  130 

Case,   Lyman   W.  233 

Orrin  S.  23^ 

I'riah  124.    23s 

Catbn.    Dr.    Abel  329 

Abijah  71.  142.  236,  23s 

George  23^.  330 

George   Smith  235 

John  T2I 

Putnam  235 

Thomas  122 

Chaffee.   Elmore    S.  236 


INDEX 


III 


mi. 


Cliamberlain,  Gov.  Abiram 
Champion,  Anna 
Champlin,   Epaphroditus 

Lucretia 

Judah.  Rev. 

John  D. 
Chapin,  Rev. 
Chapman,  Charles 

77,  lo. 

Judge 
Charles  I,  King 

II,  King 
Chase.  Charles  Y 
Cheever,   Samuel   W. 
Chipman,  Thomas 

Hon.  Nathaniel 
Chittenden,  Frederick 
Choate,   Rufus 
Chockrer.  James 
Church,  Aaron 

Leman  29.    50,    66, 

109,  no.  III,  116,  126, 

2?,1,  Z},?,-  338. 

Samuel         3,   66,   86, 

126,  133,  139,  152,  168, 

297,  302.  311,  2,2>^.  2,2,2^, 

Clark.   Senator  William  A. 

S.  Gregg 

Thomas  M. 
Clayton,  John  AI.  293, 

Cleveland,  Chauncey 

Chester  D. 

Frank   E. 

General 
Clossey,  E.  M. 
Cobb,  Lorenzo  T. 
Coe,  Mrs.  Thomas  M. 

William  G. 
Coffing,  George 

Churchill 
Cogswell.  Leonard  \V.        131, 

Col.  William      92.  123. 
Cole.  George  W. 
Collier,  Thomas 
Collins,   Rev.   Timothy 
Cook,  Richard 

Roger 

Roger  W. 
Cornelius.  Elias 
Cornwall.  Edward  A. 
Cothren,   William  150. 

238.    254.   262,    273.    34 
County  Jail 
Court  Messenger 
County   Commissioner, 
Cowan,  Stewart  W. 
Cowles.  Edward  P. 

Weaker   S. 

Samuel 


22>, 


56,  iz,  76 


142, 

242, 


96, 
135, 

103, 
237. 
335> 


125, 

312, 
102, 
124, 
124, 


321 

135. 
124, 

19, 


151, 


12  = 


295 
261 

63 

63 
261 
236 

2,1 

■  78 
41 
230 
236 
192 
236 
236 

237 
310 

341 
237 
108 

150, 

108 
296 
337 

288 
237 
237 
336 

137 
238 
2.38 
61 
163 
L=52 
281 
238 
156 
238 
3^3 
238 
238 
146 
224 
238 

II 
238 

36 
245 
152 

176 
344 
344 
239 
239 
239 
239 


Cromwell,   Oliver 
Cumming,   Edward 
Curtiss.  Eli 

Garner   B. 

Holbrook 

Medad 

William   E. 
Cushing,  Caleb 
Cutler,  George  Y. 


D 


41,  282 
239 
123,  239 
129 
94,  134,  142,  239 
239 
239 
137 
239 


Daggett,  Judge 

56,  78.  139-  140,  148, 
Darling.   Samuel 
Davis,  Gov.  John 

William   C. 

William  C.  Jr. 

Nathan 
Davies,  John 
Dawes,  Senator 
Day,  Thomas 
Dayton,  Spencer 
Dean,  Gilbert 

Lee  P. 
Deming,  Julius 

Stephen 

William 
Dempsey,  E.  C. 
Dexter,  Jeremiah   W. 
Derso,     Dr.  Grosz 
Dickinson,  Daniel  S. 

William  E. 
Dowd,  Wheaton  F. 
Downs.  Robert 

Theodore  W. 
Dorr,   Governor 
Drakely,  Robert 
Drinkwater,   William 
Dunbar.  Daniel 

Miles 
Dunning.  Lyman 
Dutton,  Judge  Thomas 

Henry  M. 
Dwight.  Rev.  Timothy 
D\er,  Eliphalet 


311.  Z32,  335 
121 

137 
154 
154 
122 
121 
278 
84.  85,  98 

125,  239 
239 

125,  239 

20,  182,  146 

322 

322 

125,  240 
240 
325 
312 
240 

143,  240 

239 
240 

137 
152 
240 
240 
240 
159 
103,  241 
241 
37 
170 


Eastman.  Rufus  241 

Eaton,  William  W.  102 

Edmonds.  Judge  5^ 

David  241 

Edwards.  Rev.  Jonathan  31,  335 

Pierrpont  56 

Ogden  241 

Eggleston.  Frederick  241 

Eldridge.  Nathaniel  B.  241 

Elliott.  Rev.  John  64 


IV 


INDSX 


Elliott,  William 

336 

Ellsworth,  Henry  Loomis 

241 

Oliver               170. 

174. 

241. 

212 

William  W. 

7b.    Ill,    1 28, 

126, 

151, 

242 

Elmer,   William   T.,  Judge 

163 

Elmore,  John               108, 

III, 

^23, 

241 

John  Jr. 

241 

Col.  Samuel 

15- 

241 

Ely,  William  H. 

125, 

241 

Emmons,  Charles 

115 

Ensign.  James 

241 

Etheridge,  Frank  W. 

124, 

166, 

241 

Everitt.   Daniel 

41, 

^23. 

242 

Sherman 

242 

Everson,   Margaret 

55 

Ewing,  Thomas 

225 

249. 


123. 


Fairchild,  Mary  217 

Farnam,  John  R.  125,  242 

Farnsworth,  Amos  H.  242 

Farrand,   Rev.  Daniel  23 

Fellows,  Francis  lOi 

Fenn,  Augustus  H. 

126.  155,  243,  244 

Elliott  J. 

Frederick  J. 

Linus 
Field.  George  T.. 
Fillmore,  Millard 
Fitch,   Thos 
Flint,  Rev.  Dr. 
Foote,  Admiral 

Ebenezer 

Governor 

John  A. 

Lucius  H. 
Forbes,  Samuel  i 

Foreign  Mission  School 
Foster,  Jared  B.  115,  138,  143, 

Lafayette  S. 
Fox.  Charles 
Franklin,   Benjamin 

John 

Governor 

Maj.  (k'li.  Will.  B. 

Silas 

Weaker  S. 
Freeman.  George  A. 
Frisbie.  Samuel 

Henry   L 

Jerome 

Rufus 
Fulton,  Robert 
Fyler,  Florimond   D.         143. 


285 
244 
244 

244 
244 

293 
122 
230 
244 

245 
244 

244-  245 

150 

3,  20,  21 

30 

245,  2S2 
lOI 

151 
16,    174 

17 
16 

245 
17 
245 
245 
246 
117,  246 
246 
246 
291 

246,  262 


114.    142.    24; 


Garfield,  Alonzo  B. 
Garrett,  Joshua 
Gager,  Judge  Edwin  B 
Ga>lord,  Frederick 
George  IH..  Statue 
Giddings,  Ammi 

V.  R.  C. 
(jifford,  George 
(ilynn,  James  P. 
Gold,  George  R. 

Thomas  R. 
Goodman,  Arthur 
Goodrich,   Elizur 

Lieut.  Gov. 
Goodwin,  Hiram 
Gould,  James 

24,  28,  46,  56,  59, 

146,  149.  183.  187, 

194,  246,  293.  304. 

338 

James  Reeve 

George 

William   T. 

Dr.  William 
Granger,  Lyman 

Miles  Toby 

no.  III,  112 

320.  321,  326 
Grant,  Elijah  Phelps 

Friend 
Graves.  Henry  B. 

126,  129.  151.  152, 

254,  260.  321 

Jedediah 
Green.  Albert   G. 

Dr.  John 

William  H. 
Griswold,  Geo.  W. 

Roger 

Governor 
Guiin,  Frederick 
Guthrie.  W.  W. 


Haddock  v.   Haddock 
Hadley,  Richard 
Hale,  Nathan  123. 

Hall,  Benjamin 

Elnathan  • 

Gideon       126.  138,  151, 

Robert  E. 
Halsted,  Mr. 
Hamilton,  Alexander 
Hand,  Alexander 
Hardcnburg.   Col.  Jacob  B. 

Ill, 


12 


324 
122 

339 
246 
181 

246 
246 

294 
124,  246 
246 
246 
313 
45 
176 
276 


85.  108,  126, 
188,  192,  193, 
312,  336.  337, 

247 
247 
247 

59 
247 


114,  115,  126,  247, 


247 
247 

155,  241.  248, 


47. 


^2S. 


no 
329 
^37 
153 
248 
176 
176 
248 
248 


Harper,  John 


164 

157 

M3.  248 

248 

248 

226,  248 

125.  248 

312 

336 

336 

165,  249 
249 


Harrison,  C.eorge  C. 

Julius  B.  ii6, 

Hart,  William 
Harvey,  Joel  Rev. 
Hathaway,  Chas.  R. 
Hatch,  Moses 
Hawle>-,   Charles 

William 
Hayes,  Charles  Gordon 

John  T. 
Hazelton,  John 
Heacock,  Philo  N. 
Heminvvay,   Louis  M. 
Henshaw,  Joshua 
Herman,  Samuel  A. 
Hickox,  George  A.     156. 
Higgins,   Bernard   E. 

James  R. 

Richard  T. 
Hillhouse,  James 
Hine,  Homer 
Hinnian,  Chief  Justice 

Noah 

Edward 

Charles  W. 

Joel 

Robinson  S. 

Royal  R. 

Simeon 
Hitchcock,  John 

Roland 

no,  112,  114,  126, 
Holabird,  William  S. 

96.   no, 
Hodges,  Elkanah  H. 
Holcoml/,  Marcus  H. 

Walter 
Hollister,  David  F. 

Gideon  H. 

126,  138,  150,  151, 

321,  322,  335 

John  B. 
Holly,  John  M. 
Holley,  Horace 
Holle>-  &  Coffmg 
Holmes,  Uriel 

II,   123,   143, 
Holt,  George  B. 
Hopkins,  Samuel  Miles 
Hornblower,  C.  J. 
Home,  Samuel  B. 
Horton,  F.  H. 

Isaac  M. 
Hosnier,   Stephen  Titus 

73' 
Hosford,  Samuel  C. 
Howe,  Henry 
John  D. 
Hubbard,  Edward  J. 


INDEX 

11 

V 

343 

Hubbard,  J.  H.    71. 

105, 

107, 

114. 

126, 

126, 

138, 

249 

138,  150,  219. 

254. 

270, 

321 

146 

John  T. 

123, 

254 

36 

Frank  W. 

125, 

255 

Richard  D. 

157, 

285 

125, 

249 

1 1        ,     *    •-,-,    t^       L^     ♦-     /~\    »-, 

342 

ninnabcon 

249 
7S 

Hungerford,  Frank  L. 

125, 

255 

Levi 

255 

249 

Humphrev,  Joseph 

D. 

255 

249 

Van  R. 

256 

163 

Hunt.  Hiram 

256 

13 

Reuben 

134, 

256 

97, 

134, 

249 
249 

Robert 
Russell  ^ 

256 
21 

145, 

249 

Huntington,  Edwar 

■d  G. 

256 

124, 

249 

James       124, 

126, 

152. 

155. 

245. 

237- 

248, 

250 

250,  256,  316, 

318 

124, 

250 

Gen    Zacliariah 

64 

157 

Jabez  W. 

29,  64,  76 

.  86, 

126. 

124. 

165, 

25c 
56 

134,  183,  190. 
Hurl  but.  Wm.  F. 

194. 

256, 

333, 

338 
141 

250 

The  County 

Court   ■ 

143 

333, 

335 

Health   Officer 

142 

166, 

240, 

258, 

323 

26, 

250 
250 
311 
251 

Doctor 
Hyde,  Alvin  P. 

I 

18 
256 

95. 

138, 
123, 

251 

251 
122 

Ingersoll,  Jonathan 
Governor 

122 
251 

143,  251,  254 

113,  134,  251 

251 
125,  167,  252 
124,  167,  252 

252 

253,  262,  273, 

252 
252 

3" 
21 

147,  253,  338 
252,  296 

253 
306 

124.  254 
254 
254 

220.  311.  332 
254 
225 

125,  254 
125,  254 


Judge 
Ives,  Aner 

Henrv  C. 


50 
148 

2.^8 


Jackson,  President 

241, 

251, 

225 

Jacobs,  George  W. 

258 

John 

341 

James,  H. 

6 

Jay,  John 

13 

Jaqna,  Daniel,  Jr. 

258 

Jefferson,  President 

170, 

174, 

337 

Jenks,  George  P. 

258 

Jenkins  &  Boyd 

21 

Jessup,  Ebenezer,  Jr. 

258 

Jewell,  Ezra 

258 

Frederick   A. 

124, 

258 

Johnson,  President  Andrew 

253 

Franklin 

154 

Samuel  N. 

26 

Amos  M. 

258 

Elisha 

126, 

259 

Solon   B. 

117, 

259 

Walter  W. 

123, 

259 

Sylvester 

259 

Johnston.  S.  W'. 

II 

Josiah   S. 

34 

Jones,  Rev.  Isaac 

188 

H.  Roger,  Jr. 

124, 

259 

VI 


INDEX 


Judd,  Walter  S. 
Judges  Notes 
Judson,  Charles  A. 

George  H. 

S.  W. 

K 


Keese,  James  D. 
Kellogg,  Ebenezer  B. 
Kelsey,  William 
Kent,  Judge 
Kickapoo  Indians 
Kilbourn,  Dwight  C. 
Kingsbury,   Frederick  J. 

George 

John 
King,  Daniel  M. 
Kirby,  Ephraim 

Law   Reports         i 

260,  290,  291,  312, 

Reynold  Ai. 
Kirkum,  Philemon 
Knapp,  William 
Koehler,  Fred  M. 
Kunkel,  Edward  A. 


125,  143,  166, 


127, 


259 
328 

259 
259 
259 


259 

260 

260 

186,  335 

314 

123,  260 

260 

260 

260 

260 

25,  27,  123 

68,   170,   181, 

336 

260 

260 

125,  261 

125,  261 

261 


Lake,  Joseph 

261 

Landon,  Edgar  M. 

261 

Howard  F. 

124, 

261, 

339 

John  R. 

11, 

127, 

261 

Lanman,  James 

71 

!,  75 

Law,  Richard 

181, 

311 

Law  School 

170 

Lawrence,  H.  P. 

155, 

262 

Wm.  P. 

124 

Leavenworth,  Isaac 

95- 

135, 

262 

William 

147 

Lee,  Rev.  Jonathan 

7 

Bradley  D. 

262 

Rev.  Chauncey 

31, 

262 

LeRoy,  James 

154 

Lewis,  Rev.  Alonzo 

N. 

125, 

262, 

321, 

322> 

Daniel  W. 

123, 

262 

Lilley,  James 

262 

Linsley,  Frank  D. 

125, 

262 

Longfellow,  Charles 

D. 

262 

Loomis,  Hon.  James 

C. 

331 

Lord,  John  J. 

263 

Lynde 

127, 

263, 

264 

Loring,  Charles  G. 

186 

Lounshury.   Gov.   Phineas 

254 

W.  B. 

150 

Loveridge,  George 

264 

John  P. 

264 

Lower  J,  Romeo 

264 

Lowry,  Governor  P. 

294 

125- 

124, 


10,    121, 
124, 


124, 
123,    126, 


Lynde,  Samuel 
Lyman,  Darius 

David 

Col.  David 

Ensign   Moses 

Moses,  Jr. 

Samuel 
Lyons,  Benedict  E. 

M 

Maltbie.  Theodore  M. 
Manchester,  Wilbur  G. 
Mannering,  Edward 
Mansfield,  Judge 

Lord 
Marsh,  Cyrus 

Ebenezer 

Frank  W. 

Samuel 

William 
Marshall,  Judge 
Marvin,  George  A. 

Reynolds  11,  20, 

265 

Ruth 
Mason,  John  Y. 

Ebenezer  P. 
Masters,  Charles   S. 

Nicholas  156, 

McDermolt,  Peter  J.  124, 

Mather,  John  P.  C. 
Maxam,  Amasa 

McCurdy,  Charles  J.  78. 

McMahon,  James  H.       135,  265, 

John 
McLaughlin,  William 
McMorris.  William  LI. 
Mead,  Paul  E. 
Mannassah,  Henr>' 
Merrill,  Walter  S. 
Merwin,  Edward  S. 

Orange 

Sylvanus 

T.  Dwight 
Metcalf,  Theron 
Middlebrooks,  C.  C.  127.  225 
Miller,  Joseph 
Mills,  Michael  F. 

Roger 

Roger  H. 

Samuel  J. 
Minor,  Gilbert   S. 

John 

Joseph 

Matthew  94- 

Matthew  J. 
Miner,   Phineas 

65,  74;  86,  89.  123,  134.  139, 

267,  23,2'   338 


125, 

266, 

91.  135, 
93,  112,  134, 
93,  114.  134, 


122 
264 
264 
264 
264 

143 
264 
264 


265 
264 
162 

184 
265 
142 
265 
265 
122 

335 
265 
170, 

170 
293 
34 
265 
265 
265 
102 
148 

lOI 

206 
265 

339 
266 
266 

152 
266 
266 

91 
no 
266 
312 

3t3 
267 
266 
266 
267 
30 
267 
142 
142 

135 

267 

140, 


INDEX 


vn 


Miner,  Timothy 

William  T. 
Alitchell,  John  G. 

Henry  A. 

Stephen   Mix 
Mix,  John  G. 

Lucy 

Thomas 
Morrill,  Henry  R. 
Moore,  Charles  C. 

Samuel 
Morris.  Governcur 

T.   Dwight 

James 

Matthew  M 
Morse.  Jacob 

Nathan 
Morton,  Walter  S. 
Moseley,  Increase 

William 
Moses,  Julius 
Mosher,  Lewis  W. 
Moss,  Charles  E. 
Mulville,  Wm.  P. 
Munger,  Vv^arrcn 
Munn,  Frank  B. 
Munson,  Harris  B. 

Judge   Lovel.'iiul 
Mygatt,  Fred  E. 

N 


1 06. 


122 

117, 

lOI 

.  134. 

267 

267 

122, 

311 

267 

145 

145 

267 

181 

34 

13. 

336 

104, 

267 

23,    3: 

^  65 

151 

129 

125. 

268 

340 

142 

176 

133 

344 

268 

125. 

268 

268 

124 

.  268 

268 

28g 

125: 

,    2(xS 

Nellis,  Edward  A. 

127, 

268 

Nesbit,  Engenius  A. 

183 

Nettleton,  Charles 

269 

Nickerson,  Leonard  J. 

123,   228,   268. 

316 

Major  A. 

268, 

269 

Nelson,  Mikkel 

269 

New  Milford  Power  Co. 

340 

North,  Theodore 

95.   135- 

269 

Norton,  Birdse>e 

143 

James  H. 

269 

Johnathan   T. 

269 

Noyes,  William  Curiiss 

239 

Obookiah.  Henrv  30 

O'Hara,  William  H.  125,  269 

Old   Grimes  329 

Orr,  James  L.  270 

Orton,  Samuel  D.  270 

Otis.  Harrison  Gray  181 

O'Sullivan.  Eugene  T.  124,  270 

Osborne,  Sellick  146 


123, 


151 


112, 
112. 


76, 

23.  73,  75,  i26, 


Palmer,  Charles  A. 
Joseph  M. 
Solomon  M. 
Parmaley,  Jonathan  E. 

David 
Park,  Hon.  John  D. 
Parker,  Amasa 

Rev.  Daniel 
Parsons,  Anson  V. 

Daniel 
Patterson,  Walter  M. 
Pease,  Calvin 

Peck,  

Wilham  K. 
Peet,   George   Washington 
Perkins,  Donald  H. 
Perry,  Nathaniel  94,  95-   I34. 

Peters.   Hugh   F. 

John  T. 
Pettit,  Joel  T. 
William 
Pettibone,  Augustus 

II,  79,  80,  123,  142,  143, 
Giles 

Samuel  26,   126, 

Sereno 
Phelps.  Chark's   B. 

94,  134.   138.   142,   150,   I5L 
262,  273.^21 

E.  Frisbie  125, 

Elisha 
Ralph  P. 

Samuel  122,  336, 

Pickering,  Col. 
Pierce,  Amos 
James 
Sarah 
Pierpont,  John  I39,  272,  273, 

Pine.  Charles  H. 
Pingree,  T.  P. 
Pitcher,  John 

Pitkin.  Rev.  Timothy    (sermon) 
George 

William  122, 

Piatt.  Orville  H.,  Hon.  170, 

Plumb,  Henrv   B.  124, 

Poe,  Washington 
Poem.  The  Lawyers  Ways 
Pond.  E.  LeRoy  124, 

Porter.  Charles  J.  127, 

John  K 


270 
270 
270 
270 
270 
220 
270 

23 
270 
270 
270 
270 
102 
270 
271 

245 
271 
271 
271 
271 
192 

271 
271 
271 
271 

238, 


Joshua  II.  I; 

Peter  B. 

President 
Potter,  Joel  B. 
Prentice,  George  D. 
Prescott.  Henry  H. 


10  = 


106, 
35, 


273 
273 
273 
338 
230 
273 
273 
24 
345 
245 
278 

273 
341 
263 
170 

273 

275 
312 

328 
275 
275 
294 
142 

275 
228 

275 

76 

157 


VIII 


IND^ji 


Preston,  Nathan 
William 


123,  275 
10,  121,  142,  276 


Rabello  (trial) 

140 

Ransom,  William   I,. 

123.   I. 

26, 

261, 

276,  320 

Timothy  C. 

276 

Randall,  Benjamin 

293 

Raymond,  David 

276 

James 

276 

Reed,  Rev.  Adam 

117 

John 

276,  277 

John  (j. 

117,  277 

Roraback,  Alberto  T 

124,  126,  132,  ] 

43. 

157, 

278,  301 

J.  Clinton 

124, 

279,  3^3 

J.  Henr>' 

124,  279 

Willard   A. 

124,   279 

Reeve,  Aaron  Burr 

183, 

184,  277 

Abner  Rev. 

182 

Reeve,  Tapping 

II,  23,  24,  28,  37,  42,  46,  56,  59, 

61,   62,   85,    122,    123,    126,  139, 

182,  185,  187,  191,  192,  193,  195, 

217,  225,  228,  230,  241,  244,  245, 

246,  253,  273,  277,  290,  291,  293, 

298,  306,  311,  312,  329,  335,  336, 

337 

Tapping  Burr 
Roberts,  Elbert  P, 

Edward  S. 

Virgil 

William  J. 
Robinson,  Henry  C. 
Richards,  James 
Richmond,  Edward 

Francis  X 
Richter.  Clark 
Riibbins,  Rev.  Ammi 

Samuel 
Rockwell   Bros. 

Edward 

Julius 

William 
Rogers,  Capt.   Edward 

William 
Roosevelt,  President 
Root,  Jesse  122,  182,  18;,  191.  311,  312 
Rood,  William  H.  278 

Rowland,  Samuel  279 

Rugglcs,  Philo  123,  279 

Russell,  Col.  1-:.  K.  168 

John  II.  279 

Ryan,  Joseph  280 

Timothy  280 

Thomas  F.       123,  280,  326,  339 


184 
123.  279,  339 
340 
133 
279 
283 
278 
278 
278 
278 

23 

156 

21 

278 

278 

278 

16 

279 

"75 


246. 


Salisbury,  Stephen 
Sanford,  George  A. 

David  C.  96,  126, 

Henry  S.  124, 

Henrv  Seymour      280, 

Rollin 
Scatocoke  Indians 
Scott,  Fred  A. 
Scoville,  Daniel 

Homer  R. 
Sedgwick,   Albert 

Charles   F.       71,    108, 

151,  282,  321,  342. 

Gen.    John 

Robert 

Capt.   John 
Sewall,    Samuel 
Seymour,  E.  W.         71,   126, 

Frank^  W. 

Horatio 

Morn's  W.       125,  283, 

Moses  82, 

Moses,  Jr.  11,  15 

Origin   Storrs  71, 

126,  138,  150,  151,  152, 

283,  285,  286,  288,  311, 

336. 

Ozias  II,  S2,    \27, 

Rev.  Storrs  O. 

Thomas 
Shay's   Rebellion 
Sheldon.  Daniel 

Col.  Elisha 
Shfdly,  James  P. 
Shelton,  George  F. 

Stephen 
Sherman.  Daniel  n, 

John 

Capt.  John 

Rev.  John 

Roger        56.  122,  126, 

173.  232,  288,  289. 

Samuel 

William 

Gen.    Wm.    T. 
Sherwood,  S.  E. 
Skinner,  J.  B. 

Mark 

Oliver 

Richard,  L.  L.  D 


Roger 
Roger  S. 
Gen.  Tmiothy 
Slosson,   Brazillai 
John 

John    ^\'illiam 
Nathaniel 
William 


30, 


47. 


137 
124,  280 
151,  280 
135.  281 
281,  321 

280 

5 
124,  282 
116 
124,  282 
127,  281 
126,  147 

282 

282 

16 

137 
283,  28^ 
124,  288 

287 
287,  288 
181,  285 
,  37,  127 
103,  125 
189,  234 
33^,  333 

285,  287 

287 

26 

18 

37 

15,  142 

124,  288 

125,  288 
288 

142,  288 
142 
288 
288 

142,  170 

288 

122,  173 
289 

56 

192 

289 

289 

30,  289 

123.  289 
289 

30,  289 

123,  289 

289 

49 

50,  139 

40,  289 


INDEX 


IX 


Smith.  Aaron 

123. 

290. 

291 

Strong.  Adonijah  27 

.  79. 

105. 

123. 

296 

Chauncey 

97, 

290 

Jedediah 

55, 

142, 

297, 

337 

Cotton  Mather 

28, 

■   53 

John,  Jr. 

90, 

135, 

296 

David                   II. 

143, 

290, 

291 

Martin         27, 

79, 

143. 

297. 

338 

James  W. 

124, 

290 

Moses 
Theron  R. 
William 
Rev.  William 

247 

George  W. 
Cien.  E.  Kirhj- 

147, 

150 

290 

297 
79 
79 

John  Cotton        28 

^  53,. 

123. 

125 

Sturges.  Jonathan 

122 

126,  290,  338. 

Swain,  Judge 

275 

John  Cotton.  Jr. 

290 

Swan,  Betsey 

282 

Joseph  L. 

146, 

290 

Cyrus          80. 

90. 

123. 

134. 

143. 

Junius 

291 

282.  297.  338 

Nathan 

27, 

292, 

342 

Swift,  Benjamin 

297 

Nathaniel         11,  , 

27.  2 

8.  55 

.  58 

Heman,  Col. 

15, 

143- 

297 

96,   123.   126.   134, 

139. 

148. 

291 

Homer 

97, 

134 

Nathaniel  B. 

292, 

336, 

337 

Jabez 

297 

Col.  Nathaniel 

292 

Milton  H. 

297 

Perry 

92. 

134. 

292 

Zcphaniah 

Phcnias  J.,  Jr. 

292 

73.  80 

.  83. 

84. 

31 1. 

3^~ 

Richard 

13. 

292 

Syllyman.  Hb-enezer 

122 

Rev.  Dr. 

48 

Truman        56,  96, 

150, 

,  221, 

237 

T 

292,  293,  294.  323. 

33,3, 

336, 

342 

Wellington    B. 

Taft,  George  E. 

125, 

297 

155. 

157. 

295. 

316 

Talcott,  Col.  John 

277 

Willey  T. 

344 

Ruth 

277 

William   M. 

55 

Tallmadge,   Col.   Bcnjair 

liii 

Southmayd,   Samuel   W. 

I 

5.  20 

.  37, 

145, 

181 

50, 

123, 

139. 

295 

Ta\lor.  Nathaniel,  ] 

Rev. 

41 

Spencer.  George 

316 

Teller.  Senator 

275 

Ambrose 

34 

Tharen,  Robert  S. 

297 

Sprat t,   William 

127 

Thatcher,  Patridge 

26,  41, 

122 

Sprague.   Lenian    B. 

295 

Thayer.  John   Q. 

125, 

297 

Stanberry,  Henry 

225 

Thomas.  John 

264 

Stanlev,  Rufus 

295 

Judson   B. 

298 

Staples,   Seth   P. 

295 

Martin  H. 

298 

Starr,  Daniel 

295 

Thompson,  Hezekiah 

26 

,298 

Staub,   Hon.   Nicholas 

340 

James 

298 

Sterling.    Ansel          91, 

135. 

142. 

295 

Judson  B. 

298 

Elisha         II,  23. 

29,  ( 

53,  86,  88 

William  H. 

329 

123,  126,  I  ^4.  148, 

149. 

295. 

300, 

Tiffanv.  F.  R. 

125 

,  298 

338 

Tracy,  Uriah 

John  M. 

295 

II,    18,    23.    2 

7.    3; 

",    ^6.    60 

.    80, 

Stevens,  Henry  W. 

296 

123,  126.  139, 

298. 

336 

James 

296 

Treadwell.   John 

37 

Stiles.   Benjamin 

122, 

296 

Treat,  Amos  S. 

298 

Benjamin,  Jr. 

123, 

.  296 

John 

122 

David  J. 

150 

Selah  B. 

298 

President 

48 

Todd,  Oliver  A.  G. 

298 

Stoddard,  Eliakim   S. 

296 

George 

298 

Henry 

296 

Tolman,    David 

298 

Maj.  Luther 

16 

Torrance,  Hon.  David 

152 

,  219 

,  243 

Stoeckel.  Robbins  Battell 

123. 

,  296 

Tousley,   Samuel 

263 

Stone.  Charles  F. 

294 

Trumbull.  Gov. 

64. 

102 

.  175 

John 

82 

Doctor 

13 

Storrs,  Judge 

John 

31 

76.    151.    152, 

311. 

332- 

3"^^ 

Tucker.  Judge 

278 

Stowe.  Harriett  Beeche 

■r 

182 

Turkington,  F.  H. 

127 

,  299 

St.  Paul's  Lodge,  F.  & 

A.  M. 

168 

Turrell,  John  S- 

299 

INDEX 


Tuttle,  Byron 

343 

Judge  Ralph 

326, 

2,27 

Charles 

299 

Philander 

106, 

134 

Tiinxis   Indians 

153 

Sally 

22  s 

Twining,  Stephen 

299 

W  hite,  Aaron 

136, 

138 

Tyng,  Rev.  Dr. 

137 

Bernice 

Rev.  Edwin  A. 

125, 

152 
303 

W 

Whitmore.  Samuel 

261 

Whitney,  Joshua 

121, 

126, 

302 

Wadhams,   Albert 

299, 

315 

Solomon 

302 

Noah 

^23, 

299 

Whittlesey,  Charles 

302 

W'adsworth,   George 

299 

Elisha 

302 

Gen.  James 

175 

Roger 

302 

Capt.  Joseph 

230 

Thomas  T. 

302 

Waite,  Judge 

150,, 

i52, 

335 

W.lcox,   Marshall 

278 

Henry  Matson 

311 

Thomas 

303 

Waldo,  Loren  P. 

lOI, 

256 

Williams,   Ephraim,   Col 

90 

Walker,   Rev. 

6.  7 

Frederic  M. 

124, 

303. 

340 

Gideon 

122 

Hubert 

303. 

313 

Wall,  Thomas  J. 

124, 

299 

John          10,    II, 

121, 

142, 

150, 

Walton,  Mr. 

106 

220,  22,2,  335,  2,2,7 

Ward,  Bennet 

, 

150 

Thomas  Scott 

311 

Henry 

191 

William  G. 

90, 

135, 

303 

Warner,  Arthur  D. 

W'ilson,  Andrew  B. 

303 

124.  143.  152,  245 

268 

299 

313 

Wolcott,  Frederick 

Donald  J.,  Jr. 

300 

II,  22,  30,  27,  81, 

122, 

123. 

126, 

Donald  J. 

116, 

133, 

143 

143,  146,  176 

224,  278,  300,  319, 

320 

Gen.  Oliver       10, 

II.  I 

6,  22 

,  29, 

Reminiscences 

lOI 

125,  127,  142,  303, 

181, 

217. 

Donald  T.        124. 

126. 

261. 

30C 

Gov.   Oliver 

125, 

176, 

303 

322,,  339 

Roger 

174 

Lyman  F. 

300 

Ursula 

176 

Milton  J. 

300 

W'ood,  Daniel 

304 

Seth 

15 

Woods,  Prof.  Alva 

137 

Washington,  George 

15- 

175. 

181 

Woodbn'dge,  John,  Jr. 

304 

Watterman,   Atty.-Gcnl. 

278 

Woodburv,   Levi 

183, 

312, 

336 

Thomas 

300 

Woodruff,  Ezekiel 

304 

Watson,  Douglass 

300 

Frederick  S. 

306 

Webb,  John  Maj. 

16 

George  C.        113, 

139. 

140, 

150, 

Webster.  Daniel  F. 

300 

283.  304,  305,  321 

Daniel 

332 

George  M.       123, 

193. 

304. 

340 

Frederick  C. 

125, 

300 

James  P. 

123, 

30.S 

John  W. 

244 

Lewis  B. 

.305. 

306 

Noah 

80 

Morris          j?',  80, 

143 

304. 

305 

Welch,  Gidcnn  TT      124, 

143. 

i.S.v 

300 

WriG;ht,  Pitkin  Cowles 

306 

Hugh  P. 

143 

Wyllys,  Mrs. 

230 

John                        3 

7.  "C 

),  80, 

143 

Wynne.  John  F. 

125. 

306 

Wells,  John  D. 

137 

Ralph 

301 

Y 

Wessells  Francis 

301 

Leveritte  W. 

127, 

301 

Yale,  John  D. 

127, 

306 

Wetmore,  Samuel 

301 

N. 

301 

z 

Wheaton,  George        g6. 

T15, 

134, 

302 

WHieeler,  Abncr  (trial  of) 


145       Zsarney,  Janos 


335 


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